


Help Wanted: The Return

by DarkCanid19



Series: Living Virus [1]
Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Don't read, Gay, Help, M/M, Slow Burn, hell has reached us, this is not healthy for me XD, this was straight but ended up gay instead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:54:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 34,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22926757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkCanid19/pseuds/DarkCanid19
Summary: Peter Graven is renowned for his expertise in FNaF gaming. But when he's hired to work on a new iteration of Help Wanted that makes the gameplay a little too real, he's faced with a lot of new challenges. When he touches something he was told not to, he finds himself face-to-face with Glitchtrap, and this time it's not fake.
Relationships: William Afton | Dave Miller/Original Character(s)
Series: Living Virus [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1647754
Comments: 41
Kudos: 33





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> hello this is not my first fic. It's already on Wattpad, along with many other stories, so check it out if you want I guess click here idk: https://www.wattpad.com/user/ShadowFuntimeFoxy19  
> yeah  
> good luck XD

Peter held his breath. One wrong move, and he’d be done for. The deep laugh of his enemy rattled the room, sending shivers down the player’s spine. Quickly, Peter rushed to the other door, hesitating before peeking around the corner. He almost immediately cried out in terror, as he caught a glimpse of small, red glowing eyes in the distance. The massive creature before him growled and stomped forwards, claws and teeth catching the reflection of its prey’s flashlight.

Fredbear was gigantic, standing at an astonishing three feet taller than Peter. The bear’s torn yellow-brown fur was hardly seen in the darkness. Loud footsteps boomed, getting louder and louder as Fredbear got closer.

Peter panicked, fumbling with the door. He finally got a grip, but it was already too late; Fredbear leaped forwards, giving an ear-shattering roar. Peter screamed, thinking he was done for.

But then he remembered where he actually was. Peter threw the headset he was wearing off and onto the floor, letting his controllers dangle limply in the straps around his wrists. He panted, wiping the fresh coat of sweat that he had accumulated while playing off his forehead Peter growled to himself, angry that he got scared so easily. Again.

Fredbear had always been the scariest character in the entire Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise, at least to him. Seeing the nightmarish figure in virtual reality was much more terrifying than he was on a simple computer screen.

Peter had never gotten past this section in Help Wanted because of this. And it was aggravating, especially since he’s beaten every single level except for this one. And it had to be completed in order to finish the game. Anything else in the game was like child’s play. Where some people would skip the Vent Repair because of the claustrophobic situation, Peter completed it with ease, laughing in the faces of Mangle and Ennard at their futile attempts to stop him. And when others took days to finish Night Five on the original game, Peter beat it on the first couple tries. He had tactics that only a true FNaF fan would know, like when to trigger Foxy on his final stage, or to multitask during FNaF 2; that is, winding the music box while checking lights at the same time. Peter even beat Sister Location in record time, earning him a signed exotic butters plush in the mail (the irony). But that was years ago.

Now, in 2022, Five Nights at Freddy’s was often referred to as a toddler’s game. Despite the new books, console ports, and even the new games such as Into Madness, Special Delivery and FNaF 58, FNaF was in fact losing its reputation as the horror game of the century. Sometimes one could find the occasional fan, but despite that, you were alone. But Peter didn’t care.

Peter had the reputation as the best player at risk, and if he can’t beat a stupid little game, his life’s work would be ruined.

Peter sighed, unhooking the controllers hanging from his wrists and setting them on his cluttered desk. An old Fritos bag caught his eye, reminding him just how hungry he really was. Walking across his small apartment, Peter opened his mini fridge and grabbed what was supposed to be yesterday’s lunch. Taking a large bite out of the cold BLT, he went to sit down on his unmade bed. He had to toss aside a few dirty clothes, though. His apartment was so cluttered, it was hard to walk through it without stepping on wrappers clothes, or even FNaF merchandise. Peter couldn’t remember the last time he actually cleaned his home.

Swallowing the last bits of his sandwich, Peter got back to his feet and reached for his Oculus Rift. It was old, but it still worked. He was about to slip it back onto his head when he heard a rattle at his door. A all envelope slipped through the mail slot in the old wooden door. The paper was a light blue, making an all-too familiar logo pop out.

Peter set his headset down again and went to reach for the envelope. Turning it over, he nearly dropped it in surprise. Right in the corner of it was the official Fazbear Entertainment logo; the one seen on the stamp in the AR game. And right next to it was Scott Cawthon’s signature profile picture.

Excited, Peter tore it open and pulled out a black paper, which felt smooth to the touch. Unfolding it, he saw the Help Wanted title. Underneath was an address and a note.

“Fazbear Entertainment would like you to help in the making of a brand new entry to the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise. Details will be expressed at interview,” Peter read aloud. Looking closer, he noticed some fine print. “Fazbear Entertainment is not responsible for injury, death, or dismemberment. We are also not responsible for night terrors, night sweats, or digital consciousness transfers.” Peter barked a laugh. _Classic Fazbear Entertainment._

But even under his overwhelming excitement, he couldn’t help but feel a bit concerned. Was the real? Was he actually being hired to be a beta tester. The thought made his shiver. He knew about Jeremy and his “incident” with the guillotine paper cutter. If that was true, he was a bit scared to know what other accidents had happened. But other questions crossed his mind as well. Would he meet Scott or any voice actors like Kellen Goff or Amber Lee Connors?

Peter took one last peek at his VR headset, then grabbed his jacket and left through the door. Might as well see for himself if it was real. He passed an orange tabby cat — the next-door neighbor’s — and stopped to give it a pat on the head. It meowed and rubbed itself against Peter’s leg, begging for attention, but Peter left it, jogging down stairs to the main floor of the apartment complex.

“Where are you off to in a hurry?”

Peter skidded to a halt to reply to Maria, the building’s manager. “Sorry! I’ve got an… interview. Yeah. I can’t be late!” And with that, he pulled open the door and ran outside.

Standing next to his old pickup truck, Peter fumbled around in his pockets for his keys. He shouted in glee when he found them, earning himself a couple concerned glances from strangers walking down the street. Finally, he unlocked his truck and umped inside. While he waited for the old thing’s motor to cough to a start, he connected his phone’s bluetooth to the stereo, opening his favorite playlist on Spotify. Just in time for the song to start, the truck started, too. Peter pulled out into the street, curious of what was ahead of him.

It only took him fifteen minutes to reach his destination, and the location the address sent him to was sending shivers down his spine with the ambiance alone. The so-called “testing facility” was in a dark alleyway, just like the one seen in FNaF 6, only without the posters. Or animatronics. A single doorway stood at the end of the alley, just exploding with bad vibes.

While he was observing the area, Peter didn’t even notice that someone had come up behind him.

“Are you Peter?”

Peter shouted in surprise, whipping around to see a middle-aged man. He seemed exhausted, his slicked back black hair beginning to spike up. Dark bugs under his dull green eyes made him look like he’d never seen the light of day for at least a month. He looked as if he would be happier to be anywhere but here. But he also seemed to be the kind of guy that was rich enough to lawsuit an entire company, judging by the satin tuxedo he was wearing. A name tag was situated over his heart, with his name and the Fazbear Entertainment logo printed next to it.

“Uh, sure. I mean, yeah,” Peter stuttered. “I was told to come here for an interview?”

“Congratulations, you’re hired,” the man replied, putting an arm on Peter’s back and leading him to the mysterious door.

Peter blinked a couple times. “Already? But I didn’t even do anything.”

“We’ve been watching you for a while.”

“That’s creepy. And cool. I don’t know what to think about… that…” Peter trailed off as the man opened the door, stepping aside to allow him in. Peter took one glance inside to know that he was in the right place.

“Goddamn,” he whispered. “It’s an exact replica of—“

“The Sister Location elevator. Yes, we all know. I helped design it,” the man interrupted.

“Wow, uh…” Peter took a moment to read the name on the tag before continuing, “…Erin. You must be an expert. I mean, I’ve seen SFMs and 3D models, but this… this is amazing.”

“ _Name, please.”_

Peter jumped when he heard the voice. It wasn’t HandUnit, or the vent lady (whatever the fandom called it). It was like an invasive species to his knowledge of all voice acting in the franchise.

“Erin,” the man spoke aloud. The voice said something again, but it glitched out. “Damn thing needs to be fixed,” Erin muttered to himself. Then he shouted, “Floor B3F please.”

 _“Request acknowledged,”_ the voice replied. The elevator then began going down, the light of the outside seeping away. Peter watched the last of it disappear, wondering if he had just signed his death contract.

“Welcome to the testing facility of Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted: Showtime.” Erin flashed a smile at Peter, but it wasn’t real. It was entirely fake, and only few would be able to tell that there was more than meets the eye to this new game. But before Peter could push any questions out to the open, the elevator stopped, the doors slowly sliding open to reveal the most amazing thing he had ever seen.


	2. Imagination Meets Reality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter learns of Fazbear Entertainment's new game idea. Animatronics coming to life? For real? Maybe this is more than he bargained for.

Computer screens. Only computer screens. And black. A female silhouette stood in the center of the mass of security feeds, muttering to herself about how ridiculous the employment was.

“Idiots wouldn’t be able to look at a mouse if they wanted to,” she hissed. Her voice was tainted with a slight British accent, which made Peter think of some more famous Youtubers he’d been watching for a while.

The woman then turned around, smiling warmly at the two men entering the room.

“Ah. Come in, come in. Plenty of space to go around,” she invited. Peter stepped inside, taking a seat on an office chair that was hardly visible in the darkness.

“So,” the woman continued, “you’re the guy everyone’s been going on about. Beat UCN in a matter of three days with only five hours of practice. The best I’ve ever seen.”

Peter blushed. “I’m not _that_ good. I’m sure others have done better,” he replied.

“Nope. Not a single person. Only a few have beaten UCN overall, since 50/20 mode is so overwhelming. Namely Dawko and a select other few.”

“It’s really simple once you figure out the mechanics.”

“That’s what _you_ think.” She smiled again, putting out her hand for Peter to shake. “Emily. And before you say anything, yes, I know I have the same name as William Afton’s first victim.”

“So it is true!”

“I shouldn’t have said that.”

“No, you should not have,” Erin butted in. “I best be going. The paperwork isn’t going to do itself, you know.”

“Yes. Go on, get your work done. I’ve got to show Peter around so he can get comfortable with his new job setting.”

Peter watched Erin go, looking back at Emily with a concerned expression. He wondered if he was doing the right thing. The thought _you shouldn’t have come here_ ran through his head for maybe the seventeenth time that day.

“Come. Your office awaits.”

Along the way to the “office”, Peter and Emily passed a couple of the other rooms, each one equipped with two-way mirrors so that the employees inside could be observed. All of the people inside this building were acting as if they were fending off an unseen enemy, screaming out suddenly, or running to the other side of the white room. They didn’t have headsets on, so it wasn’t like they were actually seeing the game. Were they?

“Here at Fazbear Entertainment, we like to take things to the next level,” Emily said, jolting Peter out of his thoughts. She gestured to one of the nearby rooms. “Take a look. Tell me what you see.”

Peter did as he was told, walking up to the glass to see a young male that looked to be around his age, his blue eyes darting around. He swiveled around quickly to press an unseen button, now breathing more heavily. Then he cursed, continuing to keep pressing the button like a madman. Then he screamed, throwing up his hands to defend himself.

“He’s seeing something that’s not there,” Peter observed.

“We can’t see it, but he can,” Emily replied. Here’s what he’s really seeing.” She pointed to a monitor embedded in the wall, which was playing back video feed of what looked to be the office from FNaF 1. Bonnie had jumpscared him.

“So, is it like contact lenses, or…?”

“No. Not at all. Come.” Emily opened the door to the inside of the room, causing the man inside to yelp in surprise. When Peter walked inside, he gasped in awe. It wasn’t white at all. It was really an exact replica of the FNaF 1 office, just like the elevator from before. The man who was playing the game stared at the two, exhaling in relief. He looked as if he’d just stared into the deepest pit of Hell itself. Next to him stood the most accurate model of Bonnie Peter had ever seen. It glanced down at the man he just scared and then faded away into pixels, the room’s structure following. It melted into the main screen of the original Help Wanted main screen, but it was all so real. A little _too_ real.

“How’d he get you?” Emily questioned, her eyes narrowing.

“I saw him in the door, but he jammed the button,” the man replied. He sighed before adding, “Again.”

“We talked about this. Footsteps, listen for footsteps. You can still see him without the light. For the thousandth time, stop gawking at Foxy on the cameras and check the doors!”

“Sorry,” the man mumbled. “Foxy’s actions are just so… spastic. It’s hard to tell when he’s about to storm down the hall or not. He’s not even supposed to be active on the first night.”

“First night?” Peter echoed. “How is that hard?”

The man glared at him. “To me it is. Who do you think you are?”

“Peter Graven.”

Now the man’s glare turned into surprise and astonishment. “My God. You crazy fucks actually did it.” He made a nervous chuckle. “Justin.” He held out his hand to shake, which Peter took gleefully.

“I take it you’ve heard of me,” he said, laughing a bit.

“Hell yeah! What FNaF fan hasn’t? God, you’re more famous about it than Markiplier.”

“I like to take after Dawko. He is an almost all-FNaF channel.”

“Of course. One of the few who’s beaten 50/20 and had an interview with Scott himself. Who hasn’t heard of him?”

“My thoughts exactly.”

Emily cleared her throat to draw their attention. “Justin. Would you mind showing our new intern beta tester how to work the game?”

“Of course not!” Justin replied. Emily nodded curtly, then went to step out the door.

“I’ll return in an hour or so. Good luck,” she said, then left. As soon as the door clicked closed, the room instantly felt larger and darker. Peter suppressed a nervous shudder. He then Tok a moment to observe his surroundings.

He jumped a bit when Justin placed a hand on his shoulder. “Welcome to the new age of gaming,” he said, giving a wide smile.

_“Don’t let him near the code. He’s not ready yet.”_

_“I don’t think it’ll let him stall any longer than he needs to.”_

_“Then we need to teach it not to jump to conclusions. It must have a proper host this time. Unless it wants to remain as a mere glitch in a game’s code.”_

_Emily looked down at the camera monitor that was situated on a dark room. Staring back at her was a green manifestation of code that formed the shape of a familiar rabbit._

_“Therefore, the Trials are necessary.”_

“Everything you see is physical. At least to the player it is,” Justin explained. He knocked his knuckles on the countertop in the prize corner for demonstration. “The only thing is that you can’t feel pain. It’s creepy, feeling them wrap their limbs around you in attempt to constrict and crush your bones, but not actually feeling the pain. Seeing it in VR is one thing, but feeling Foxy’s hook plunge into you without the pain… It’s unsettling.”

Peter didn’t reply to that. He decided to try and touch the counter himself. It worked, for he felt the cool glass beneath his fingertips. He couldn’t help but gasp in astonishment.

“Anyways, this isn’t like the original Help Wanted,” Justin continued. “You have all the FNaF games up to Pizzeria Simulator here, along with the Vent Repair, Parts and Service, and Dark Rooms minigames. It’s a lot, so that’s why everyone’s assigned a specific portion. I, for example, have the first game. And I suck at it.” He laughed rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

“I can help, if you want,” Peter offered.

“Oh, no, no, no, no! Emily said specifically that this was an independent job. Absolutely no help at all,” Justin blurted.

“That’s stupid. But, I guess FNaF was always single-player, so..”

Justin nodded. But you can watch. Or you can play, and I’ll watch. You know, as a test run.”

Peter looked back at where the door to the hallway outside the room was. He wondered if he’d ever leave again, considering the past mishaps with employees in the games. There was Jeremy with the bite of ’87, not to mention the _other_ Jeremy with the paper cutter thing. Then there was Michael and the bite of ’83, and then the scooper, then the fire. William Afton had it the worst, though. Peter wondered what his special incident would be. Digital consciousness transfers? He laughed at the thought.

“No, thank you. I choose life.”

“Your office, Mr Graven,” Emily said, holding open the door.

Peter craned his neck to see inside. It was pure white, just like all the other empty rooms. It seemed endless.

“There’s nothing here?”

“Oh, not yet. Step inside, will you?”

Peter did as he was told, Emily at his heels. She crossed over to the center of the room, tapping her heel on the floor twice. The room responded with a soft _beep_ , then the area itself melted into pixels. It reformed into a pitch black void, remaining that way until more pixels began molding into familiar tables. Light began seeping into the room, and a stage began crafting itself.

“Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria,” Peter said to himself. “Dining area and stage.”

Emily nodded. Then she tapped the floor a third time, telling the room to begin forming the antagonists.

Foxy came first, the pixels forming his bare endoskeleton legs and into the torn brown thighs, then up into the burnt red torso. The head came last, the eyes emitting an eerie pale-yellow glow. Then as soon as it finished forming, he began moving. Well, somewhat. Foxy tilted his head, the eyepatch over his right eye flipping up. His eyes landed on Peter, his jaw creaking open a bit more. He then bent his torso down, clacking his jaw shut.

Peter remembered what Justin had said earlier about not feeling pain. That made the situation a little less terrifying.

“Can I touch him?” he asked, already slowly reaching his hands out towards the pirate fox. The animatronic’s gaze flicked down to it, his head tilting like a curious dog’s would.

“Of course,” Emily answered. She nodded in encouragement. Peter smiled, giving a breathy laugh as his hand came inches away from Foxy’s snout. Then, as if on instinct, the fox bent down lower and pressed its nose into Peter’s hand. The young man laughed again, now beginning to pet him. The fabric was surprisingly soft for being so old, and the nose itself was like a coarse button, indenting here and jutting out there to form a perfect nostril. Foxy made a mechanical whine, closing his yellow eyes in an almost blissful way. It was as if it had feelings.

“We designed each animatronic with their own separate personalities,” Emily said, almost like she was reading Peter’s mind. “While they may act like animals, they are completely capable of human thoughts.

“Don’t ruin my fun, lass,” Foxy growled, making Peter jump in surprise. Apparently that meant human speech, too. Foxy sighed contently. “I haven’t had a good pat like this in forever. Well, at all, really.”

“That’s a bit unsettling, though. I bit too real in my opinion, considering they’re the souls of kids murdered in the eighties,” Peter mused. Foxy opened his eyes to glare at him, then stood straight. He said nothing, but turned his attention to Emily instead. His gaze was filled with… what was that? Hatred? Loathing? Could animatronics even make facial expressions?

“All the more creepy for the players,” Emily replied. She gave Foxy a hard stare, which forced the pirate into dropping his gaze to the floor.

“What am I, a roach?”

Peter turned around to the stage, just then realizing that Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica were there as well. For how long, he didn’t know.

“My God,” he whispered. He wanted to come closer to them, but was too scared at the same time.

“Don’t worry; they’re not evil at all until they’re programmed to be so in their designated games,” Emily said. She gestured for Peter to walk up to the other three animatronics. But he didn’t move.

“How unfortunate,” Bonnie sneered. He glanced sideways at Freddy, who seemed to be staring off into his own world. “Foxy gets all the attention yet again.”

“Because he’s the coolest,” Peter replied, crossing his arms. Foxy barked a boastful laugh. Bonnie and Chica both gasped in offense at the same time.

“How rude! I’m just as exciting as he is!” Chica muttered. Bonnie sniggered.

“Not as famous, but maybe just as annoying,” he replied, which earned him a very angry look from the chicken.

Emily turned to Peter, rolling her eyes. “They are a little _too_ emotional, though.” She then looked back at the animatronics. “Sorry to ruin your fun, but we best be going. I’m sure Peter would love to see his favorite place and characters.”

 _That_ made Freddy snap back into the real world (well, to them). He narrowed his eyes, then said, “I see.” Peter had never heard such a dismissive voice before in his entire life.

Peter ignored that the best he could. “Fazbear’s Fright?” he asked excitedly. He’d always wanted to see what that would look like, not just in VR. He also wanted to see if Springtrap was anything like a child murderer at all.

 _Well, no. Springtrap was just an illusion. It was his return in Pizzeria Simulator that was the real thing,_ he reminded himself. He shrugged that thought off. He was still curious.

“Of course.” Emily then tapped her foot on the floor seven times now, watching the pixels fade away into darkness again.

“It was nice knowing ya, lad,” Peter heard Foxy call out just before the animatronic melted away. He sighed, knowing that they would meet again sooner than later.

The room now began taking the shape of the FNaF 3 office, the grey tiles becoming infested with mold and rot as soon as they came into existence. The old lights flickered into action, dimly lighting the hall outside. The closer he looked, Peter realized that the window’s glass was cracked in the shape of a fist.

“Still need to fix that,” Emily muttered. She sighed. “Our resident overgrown Easter Bunny tried to shove a phantom’s face in with a brick he found laying on the floor. Talk about resourcefulness.”

Peter tried to hide his giggles at that comment.

“The damned bear deserved it, too.”

He twisted around to find Springtrap casually leaned against a file cabinet in the corner of the room. He looked Peter up and down as if he were a tasty piece of fresh prey. His voice wasn’t robotic like the others, either. It was more humanoid in a way, despite the fact that it was gargled due to the springlocks lodged in his throat.

“Goddamn,” Peter coughed, his eyes beginning to water. He covered his nose to block the acrid smell coming from the rabbit. It was like rotten, moldy corpse. Which was what it really was. “You even made him _smell_ real,” he added.

“We tried our best,” Emily said before Springtrap cut her off.

“Excuse me?”

Peter gulped, regretting his statement. “Nothing,” he mumbled.

Springtrap made a dismissive _harrumph_ and raised his chin to look down on his visitor. “That’s what I thought.”

“Some personality,” Peter whispered to Emily, who nodded in agreement.

“We didn’t even choose their personalities. It was all randomized,” she replied. “That thing just got lucky.”

“I can hear you,” Springtrap hissed.

“Good for you. At least we know those obnoxiously large ears of yours work,” Emily retorted.

Springtrap snorted, turning to walk away. He flipped the other two off, soon disappearing into a vent.

“That was… interesting.”

Emily made no comment. She was staring out the office window at a shadow on the wall. Then after a couple moments, she said, “This should be your assigned game. Your favorite, I assume?”

“Of course. Thank you,” Peter stuttered. Just before he went to say more, his eyes caught on a familiar purple and black object. He cocked his head, trying to remember if this was where a tape’s location was in the original Help Wanted. Emily soon caught on to his attention.

“Don’t touch that. It’s not implemented yet, and it’ll make the game go haywire. You’d never be able to leave.”

Peter stared at the tape for a couple more seconds, then looked at the camera screen. It was situated on the arcade, Springtrap limping his way through. He went out of sight again, but the sound of thumping on metal told him that the animatronic had shoved itself into a vent.

“I can’t imagine what Sister Location would be like,” Peter mused.

“Actually, we simplified it to be the custom night, plus the survival unit with Ennard. We just made it ten times harder,” Emily explained. She then looked at her wrist, gasping at the time told on her watch. “I need to go. Please, make yourself comfortable. Acquaintance yourself with the residents. I’m sure the balloon gremlin would love some attention.”

She then walked through the wall, opening an unseen door and stepping back outside. Peter made a mental note to remember where that was.

He sat down on the swivel chair that was situated in front of the desk and began flipping through the camera feeds. But the tape drew his attention again. Maybe Fazbear Entertainment only wanted him to leave it alone because it would expose their true intentions. That was the case with the tapes in the other Help Wanted, anyways. If it really was just an unimplemented bit of code, there was always a way to leave the game. So, without further ado, he grabbed the glitched object. It disappeared instantly, making a mechanical screech, which was nothing like the original sound.

Then Peter felt hot breath down the back of his neck. The room went purple, then green, then black. But the presence was still behind him.

“Fool,” it hissed, then placed a cold hand on his shoulder, gripping it tightly. Peter choked on his own breath, scared to move a muscle.

“I’m going to have fun with you,” the thing behind him breathed. “I’m sure we’ll be the best of friends.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha enemies to lovers this will be interesting *intense stare*


	3. Meeting Certain Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter meets the real William Afton, and he knows he's not leaving until he's done something for him or until he winds up dead. Digital consciousness transfer is the last thing he wants to worry about.

Peter knew who it was. He also knew that it was probably just another AI with a human personality. Maybe. _Or_ it could be that one child slaughterer brought to life. One or the other.

“There’s a huge difference between murdering and slaughtering,” Glitchtrap growled. “Slaughtering would be like telling me that I aimlessly killed children with no intent at all. Murdering on the other hand tells me that I actually had a plan to begin with.”

 _Oh God,_ Peter thought. It could read minds.

“Of course, dummy; How would I have known that unless I could do that?”

“Stop that,” Peter said stiffly, his voice a couple octaves higher than normal because of fear.

“Stop what?”

“Reading my mind.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that. It just happens, you know?”

Peter slowly turned his head to look at the sentient code. It was in fact Glitchtrap, but the Springbonnie costume itself was more dull than its original appearance, and the seams were coming undone, exposing purple pixels inside the costume. There wasn’t anything inside except that.

Then he looked up at its face. The wide grin, the glowing purple eyes… It seemed much too realistic now.

“That’s because I _am_ real,” it said, answering Peter’s thoughts.

It was hard to believe. After all, it was much too hard to tell what was real and what wasn’t in this game.

“I’ll prove it to you.”

Peter thought for a second before replying, “How?”

“For one thing, I can make you feel pain. As for another, I can kill you right here and right now if I wanted to.” Glitchtrap then stroked its chin with a finger and thumb. “Now _that’s_ an interesting subject. How should I go about killing you if I got the chance? Should it be slow and painful, or quick without suffering. Maybe somewhere in between?”

“Thats a bit dark,” Peter stated. He bit his tongue, regretting even saying that.

“Oh, I can be a lot more dark. Let’s see… There was that time I couldn’t fit one of those kids into a suit. I had to rip him in half to make it fit. Now _that_ was bloody.” It shuddered mockingly. “Intestines aren’t my kind of thing. Just surface wounds. Maybe slightly deeper.”

Peter began sweating nervously. He wanted to refine that story in his head, but he knew the storyteller himself would catch it. He then began to think about not thinking.

“Jesus Christ, stop,” Glitchtrap hissed. “You’re giving me a headache with all that ruckus in that head of yours. Is it always that scattered?”

“That’s none of your business,” Peter retaliated.

“I say it is.” The rabbit put his hands on his knees, bending down to Peter’s height.

“No.”

Glitchtrap giggled. “I’ll find it anyways.”

“No you won’t.”

“Yes, I will.”

Peter bit back another retort. Was he really arguing with a sentient rabbit suit?

“Yes.”

“Stop that!”

“No.”

He took a deep breath, holding back an angry comment. _Be the better person,_ he told himself. _Treat others as you would like them to treat you._

“That’s nice. You should write a book of inspirational quotes,” Glitchtrap chimed in. “‘Tomorrow’s another day.’ But it could be worse!” He cackled maniacally.

Peter whimpered. He had a feeling that he was done for. Maybe that warning wasn’t a hoax after all. But if Glitchtrap was real — who was really William Afton — then were the events of the FNaF franchise real as well? The very thought of it made his stomach turn.

Glitchtrap narrowed his eyes, which was the only expression he could do given that he couldn’t move his mouth. Peter assumed that he was either in deep thought or just giving him a nasty look. So, he remained still, the only muscles he was moving being his own eyes, which were observing the rabbit’s appearance.

He was lanky in particular, his arms a bit longer than what a normal person would have. His purple star-covered vest was tearing a some places, threads hanging here and there. His legs were thicker than his arms, somewhat resembling what would be a fursuit reject. His head was like a fat disk, his nose and eyes bulging out to make him look ridiculous. Well, it had to look overly stupid in order to trick kids into trusting him; Idiotic enough to make parents not second-guess leaving their kids alone with him.

“How rude,” Glitchtrap scoffed. “I do _not_ look stupid.”

“I object to that,” Peter replied through gritted teeth. He forced himself to gaze into the eyes of the nightmarish monstrosity before him. He let out a shaky breath when he saw the purple shift to green for a split second. It was almost like the rabbit had just comprehended something, and it was almost like he could hear the brain cells pop with realization.

Glitchtrap stood straight, crossing his arms. He then began circling Peter, observing his features. When he came to where he was previously standing, he chuckled.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” he said, blinking slowly. “Maybe I won’t be trapped here for much longer at all.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

He didn’t answer.

“How do you know you’ll be freed soon?”

“The same as how you know so much about me. Internet. The World Wide Web. Social media. I can still reach out to that kind of stuff, you know. What is it that you call me?”

Peter tried hard to put a barrier around his thoughts, but he could feel it come crumbling down just as Glitchtrap made a breathy giggle.

“Glitchtrap? I suppose that makes sense… Though ‘Springtrap’ sounded a lot better. Probably because I made the name myself.”

“You also went by Dave Miller,” Peter mumbled. He didn’t have to dig deep in his archive of information for that one. “But it was only a cover-up so you wouldn’t be framed again for the missing children’s incident.”

“And what name would I be covering up?”

Peter squinted his eyes shut, forcing one thought out in a way that he thought would be loud enough for his captor to hear without having to try.

“Correct. I never really liked the name William. It made me sound like I was harmless,” Glitchtrap muttered.

“Which you aren’t,” Peter argued.

“Precisely. But call me want you want. At least I have a reputation amongst those who care.”

Peter then thought about wether he should keep calling him Glitchtrap in his head. Springtrap didn’t fit him now. Dave sounded stupid.

“What do you want with me, Afton?” he managed to say, swallowing a hard lump in his throat.

“I think you know exactly what I want with you.”

Peter did know. Maybe Help Wanted wasn’t a cover-up story after all. The whole discussion and debate about digital consciousness transfer with the soul of William Afton — who had just recently escaped purgatory — was all true. He then recited the very words he laughed at only a couple hours ago: _Fazbear Entertainment is not responsible for injury, death or dismemberment. We are also not responsible for night terrors, night sweats, or digital consciousness transfers._ This was no joke. Fazbear Entertainment was actually being serious for once in their entire existence.

He forced himself to make eye contact yet again. Afton had a bored expression despite his eternal smile, and he seemed the slightest bit annoyed.

After what felt like an eternity, William finally spoke again. “You can either die now, or you can attempt to prove yourself worthy to be my host.”

“I don’t think I like either choice.”

“We all have choices, Peter. But not all the outcomes of those choices are best suited to our likings.”

Peter sniggered, and William glared down at him.

“What’s so funny?”

“Sorry. You just went from being really annoying to really serious real fast,” Peter explained. He tried to go back to being terrified the best he could.

William sighed, rolling his eyes. His angry demeanor was really thrown off by that stupid smile. “I can do that sometimes. But from what I’m seeing in your head, you’re just as bad.”

“Gee, thanks.”

The yellow rabbit chuckled. “Interesting. Very interesting,” he mumbled, almost too soft to comprehend. “After everyone I’ve seen step into this game, I’ve never met anyone quite like you.”

“Are you telling me that I’m special?” Peter asked.

“Everyone’s special in their own way. Take me, for instance. I’m charming, well-loved, and _very_ handsome.” William chortled to himself when Peter gave him a confused look.

“I highly doubt that.”

He sniffed disdainfully. Then he waved his hand, conjuring a green flame-like aura around it. The darkness then began forming into a small room. The closer he looked, the more Peter could classify it as a parts and service room. But it wasn’t like any he had ever seen. But when a familiar suit formed on the floor at the far end of the room, he had a feeling that it wasn’t parts and service at all.

It was the saferoom from Jr’s.

Peter instinctively crouched down by the yellow springlock suit, running a hand down the side of its face. He felt something damp under his fingertips, so he drew them back to observe the substance. His heart skipped a beat when he realized that it was fresh blood. Looking further, almost the entirety of the suit was covered in blood. Large tears in the torso and legs showed off the rotting corps inside. Curious, he looked up into its eyes. They were glossed over with death, what were once brown irises fading into grey. Thin veins stretched over the cornea, making them appear bloodshot. The whole of the eyes themselves were bulged and jelly-like, and appeared to be ready to burst by a simple touch.

Then Peter caught the smell. It wasn’t as bad as the stink that emitted from Springtrap, since it wasn’t as rotted. Plus the metallic stench of fresh blood covered most of the rotting bit. He still gagged a bit, regretting even touching the disgusting thing.

He stood, waving a hand in front of his face to waft the smell away. “Jesus. I don’t know how anybody could have walked past this room without smelling _that_ ,” he said, coughing.

The other William — the _real_ William — scoffed. He decided to take a look at himself on the floor, tilting the chin of the springlock suit up to look at the victim’s throat. He then pried open the jaw, narrowing his eyes to look inside. He then sighed, letting the head loll limply once again.

“I should have never stepped inside that suit,” he said absentmindedly, running his fingers along the animatronic’s chest. “But how would I have known?”

“Maybe if you never killed those kids in the first place, it wouldn’t have happened,” Peter replied. He was expecting an angry retort, but William remained staring at his own rotting corpse, as still as a rock. His eyes were glassed over in deep thought. It almost made Peter feel sorry for him.

Almost.

 _He’s still a murderer. He’s still got you captive. He’s evil. He’s a lier. Untrustworthy._ But as much as Peter tried to convince himself not to, he still felt his heartstrings being pulled at the pitiful sight.

“Why’d you even bring me here?” he finally blurted.

William blinked, hesitating a moment before standing up again to address his prisoner properly. “I was looking for your insight. I’ve brought everyone I’ve found here to see their reaction, and almost always they’ve turned tail and ran. But you, on the other hand, actually touched him. Well, me. You looked very intrigued. The thoughts running rampant in that brain of yours tells me that you’re smart.” He clasped his hands together at his chest suddenly, making Peter jump. “Therefore, the first Trial is complete.”

“Trial?” Peter echoed. “For what, worthiness?”

“Precisely. A good host needs to be open-minded and knowledgable. You passed with flying colors.”

“So what now? How many of these trials are there?”

“That depends on how long you last. You might die, or go insane. Or maybe, just maybe, you’ll see it through to the end, marking you as a perfect host.”

“Wow. All of that just for me?” Peter said sarcastically. But he was really crying in fear on the inside.

“I need to make sure I’m not going to possess some random Joe on the sidewalk. They need to have at least _some_ quality.”

There was silence for a while, and the two stared at each other the entire time. Peter found himself edging closer to the man in the rabbit suit, and he instantly corrected himself by taking a giant step back. William laughed.

“Tell me, Graven, what do you really think when you hear the word ‘trial’?” he asked, tilting his head slightly to the left.

“Well, it’s really just another word for a test. Or, in the other sense, it’s the limited availability of a certain thing, like a game or a piece of technology. A trail run.”

“Hmm.” Afton was quiet for a moment, his eyes flashing green again. “How long do you think you can go without sleeping?”

“I don’t know, two days? Why?”

“I think you can go three.”

“Okay?”

If it was possible, his grin would have grown wider. “In the meantime, I want to know how much pressure you can handle before cracking. Who’s your least favorite character?”

Peter thought for a second before deciding to answer that. He didn’t want to go up against Nightmare Fredbear ever again. So, he chose the easy route. “Balloon Boy,” he answered, keeping a straight face.

“Nightmare Fredbear it is, then,” William replied. When Peter’s color drained from his face in terror, he added, “But you’re not the only one that hates her.”

Peter’s brain clicked. He’d forgotten that William’s mortal enemy was Cassidy. Who would have thought that Golden Freddy would get such an important role in the lore?

He still shook with dread, his forehead dripping with sweat. He closed his eyes tightly shut, muttering a prayer under his breath.

“Wow. You really hate her, don’t you?”

Peter glared at William harshly. The virus seemed hesitant. He looked down at the floor, pointing his eyes here and there. Then he looked up again. “I’ll make it easier on you.”

“Why? I thought you were cold and heartless.”

“I’m not exactly what everyone says I am. I have some dignity left, thank you very much.”

Peter chuckled nervously. He shook his head, running a hand through his brown hair.

“I can’t believe this is happening. I mean, first Fazbear Entertainment hires me to beta test a new game — and, oh hey! They actually exist, by the way! Then I get to meet the soul of a child murderer that has been marked as the most dangerous antagonist in the entire FNaF franchise, who just so happened to have singled me out just to test me. What’s that test, you wonder? A test of worthiness to be a host for a digital consciousness transfer!” Peter paused to catch his breath and observe the look on Afton’s face, which was calm and collected. “A completely fictitious game universe that I happen to love has suddenly popped out of the ground like daisies to tell the world it exists. I’ve dreamed of it, but I never thought it’d go like this.” He sniffed, forcing back a couple tears. “Now I’m wondering if I’ll ever see the light of day again.”

Peter let out a shaky breath, avoiding even looking at William. He realized that he was just now letting out all the emotions he had been holding in ever since their meeting. The anger. The hate. The fear. The sadness. It all came during out of his mouth like the Niagara Falls. He felt his face heat up in absolute remorse, his breaths ragged gasps. And all the while, Afton was just watching him like nothing was happening. The stupid, lying, murderous fuck.

Peter felt his knees give out under him, and he collapsed to the cold tile floor. He kept shouting curses, violent accusations, and much, much more, almost as if it was a mantra that would guarantee that he would wake up to discover this was just some stupid dream turned nightmare.

Tan-yellow pawlike feet appeared just at the edges of Peter’s vision. He looked up to see William looking down at him, an unreadable expression etched on his stupid face. Peter then felt a numbing feeling creep up over his mind, shunning his thoughts and forcing his words to mix up and come out as incomprehensible babbling. He finally gave up, his eyelids forcing themselves shut. He had a feeling that he knew what was happening. He figured that Afton could have the kind of abilities that could sedate someone into unconsciousness. His last train of thought was centered on wether he would wind up dead or not. He supposed he would find out when he woke up again.

If he ever woke up again.

~*^*~

It was the first time William had questioned his allegiances in years. He’d always hated everybody he met, and that was a fact. He instantly became the enemy of everyone, always labeled as the bad guy; the murderer, a freak, that one crazy guy. He just went along with it, not minding the bad reputation he had formed ever since he’d been charged for murder. Of course, he had murdered the victim. But the court had had no proof of his actions. The bodies were never found, therefore no charges could be made.

Afton prided himself with the fact that he had slipped by lifetime prison servitude by just stuffing measly children’s bodies into animatronic suits. It just proved the fact that Fazbear Entertainment never even bothered to clean their robots; Even after people had described the smell of “reanimated corpses”. William never thought he’d actually get away with it.

The thing was that since everyone knew what he did, they never bothered to think about _why_ he did it. Of course, people these days had no sense of compassion or empathy. Humanity just needed to learn that there was always a reason to everyone’s actions.

William never thought he’d ever murder anyone back when he was still sane. He was happy, married with three kids, had a nice home, a nice job, great friends. But that all changed the day his wife was diagnosed with lung cancer. It turns out that she only had four more years to live, since the cure was still being perfected. That was when his mind began to turn. He figured that God had abandoned him. God took away the love of his life. So what did it matter if he took someone else’s life?

His first victim was Charolette Emily, his best friend’s own daughter. Of course, he was very careful about it. He waited until she was alone before luring her out of sight to be brutally murdered. Luckily, the homemade Springbonnie suit he wore during the event was easily washable.

Henry’s relationship with William dwindled out quickly, as the poor man had gone insane with the loss. Fredbear’s closed because he couldn’t handle the responsibility, leaving William with the opportunity to take over. Therefore, he created Circus Baby’s Pizza World.

But of course God still hated him. Right on the opening day, his own daughter was killed by the very animatronic he had built just for her. The same year his youngest son was killed in an incident with Fredbear. The skull was crushed, leaving no chance for the victim to live.

William, already being torn in half by the recent loss of his daughter and the dread of losing his wife, decided he would take a shot at rebuilding his deceased son. It worked. A little too well, to be honest.

Jackson, the oldest, knew that it wasn’t natural for his dead brother to be romping around the house as chipper as can be. He was also noticing a change in his father’s attitude in general, given the fact that William was abusing him. So, he did what any reasonable kid would do and ran away, leaving his father alone to deal with his mourning.

What’s worse, his wife died two years earlier than she was suppose to go. So he was forever alone.

Murdering children was his go-to stress relief. It took a lot of patience and planning, especially if you didn’t want to get caught. Though as hard as Afton tried to be discreet about it, he was found anyways. But not in the way he thought he’d be.

Springlocks had to be the absolute worst way to die. It was slow and painful, not letting you go until you drowned in your own blood. It was even worse with the spirits of the children you murdered watching and laughing at you all the while.

For thirty-two years he’d remained in that suit. He spent six more years in a hellish purgatory, fighting with his own creations. He finally did escape, but not in the best way possible. He found a way to transfer his consciousness digitally through technology, hiding himself among the code until he could find someone to leave through. But that was the hard part. Almost everyone he came across was too simple-minded to even be considered.

Peter, on the other hand, was the first person he’d seen with a mind so precise and ideal. In fact, he was the only person that caught his eye in almost a year.

He wondered why it was so. Maybe it was because Peter already knew so much about him, or the fact that he knew about him at all. The thing was that William knew that the world already knew about what he had done because of that stupid game franchise. Fazbear Entertainment was just so determined to screw up his life — well, afterlife.

Peter’s instant fear of him made William rethink his original intentions. For the first time in so many years, he actually felt sorry for what he was going to do.

Now, as he watched his prisoner toss and turn in his sleep, he regretted his life choices overall. He wondered if he should go along with the Trials at all.

But he had a deal.

Therefore, he had to run through with them. He just silently hoped that Peter wouldn’t lose himself in the process.

~*^*~

Peter woke to the feeling of someone shaking him by the shoulders. He made a grumbly reply, shrugging the hand away and flipping over to his other side. But he was shaken again.

“Fuck off,” he growled, swatting away whoever was there. He froze when he felt cold metal. He snapped open his eyes, yelping when he saw a discombobulation of an animatronic endoskeleton. He scrambled away until he hit his back against a wall, then stood up and put out his hands in front of himself, trying to ward off the animatronic.

“Oh, no. I d-didn’t mean to frighten you.”

Peter stopped. That voice was familiar. He lowered his hands to see a white fox head with pink accents. One of her yellow eyes were missing, though a white dot represented the pupil. Her eyelids blinked at irregular intervals, and she was tilting her head in a way that gave Peter shivers.

Mangle creeped a bit closer, her quadrupedal mess of limbs clinking against the checkered floor. She leaned her head so close to Peter’s that it made him scream. He knew what this thing had done to people. Well, one person in particular.

“Are you a-alright?” Mangle asked, sitting in a position that a dog would do. Her secondary head craned backwards, its one eye focusing on Peter.

All he could reply with was another whimper.

“Hey! Go home, scrap-pile!”

Peter leaned to the right to see William enter the saferoom. He glared at Mangle, who sat up instantly in surprise.

“I don’t appreciate that name,” she growled, making a mechanical equivalent to a snarl.

It was only then that Peter remember that she had the spirit of a dog.

“Stupid mutt,” William muttered. “I warned you to stay away from here.”

Mangle said nothing, lowering her head and crawling her way around her killer to leave. She jumped up, clamping her jaws around a wire hanging from the ceiling, then climbed her way into a vent situated near the ceiling. William watched her go, a scowl present on his face. He then turned to look at Peter.

“Well, look who decided to wake up,” he said in a sing-song voice.

“Why am I still here?” Peter asked. “I want to go home.”

“Sorry. I don’t think you _can_ leave until you finish the Trials,” Afton replied.

Peter sighed, sitting back down on the floor. He laid his head back against the wall, remembering what he had said earlier. Then he remembered one thing in particular.

“You sedated me.”

“I wouldn’t call it sedation. I would call it forcing you to take a power nap.”

“At least I’m not idiotic enough to take a random person hostage and expect them to be perfect for a fucking consciousness transfer.”

William guiltily avoided eye contact. He sighed, putting two fingers to where his temple would be. “I have to. You try being stuck in dark enclosed areas for forty-one years and never see sunlight. It gets aggravating quick,” he said, turning his back to Peter. “For forty-one years I’ve waited. Watched. Listened. Anything I could do to find a way out. Then I found you.”

“And why—“ Peter began, but William cut him off with the raise of a hand.

“As I’ve said before, I’ve never met anyone quite like you. You’re smart; At least from as far as I can tell. You know me more than I know myself sometimes by simple research and theorizing. You know what’s going to happen with using your own prior knowledge. All I need to know next is if you’re smart enough to last a couple days without getting yourself killed.”

“But I can’t be killed in the game. Can’t I?”

“In the Trials, that changes. An assassin won’t kill you and let you revive yourself in real life, will they? You stay dead.”

“Touché.”

“So, I’m asking you if you’re ready to begin the second Trial.”

“Which is?”

“It depends. What game do you think is the hardest?”

Peter knew a lie wouldn’t get him out f that question. With Mr Mind Reader over there, nothing could be hidden. So, he answered as honestly as he could. “Ultimate Custom Night.”

“I meant before that.”

“Oh. Well, in that case, the second game.”

“Do you mean that in chronological order of release or timeline?”

“Both. FNaF 2 came after Sister Location in the timeline.”

“No it didn’t.”

“What? I spent years trying to figure out the damn thing and you’re telling me no?”

“Where do you place the fourth in this timeline of yours?”

“Um…” Damnit. Peter never put it anywhere because it could take place anywhere except after FNaF 6. He sighed, replying with, “Nowhere.”

“Then tell me: Do you think androids can dream?”

 _That_ caught his attention. It was almost like one of those stupid bedtime paradox memes. Peter furrowed his brow when he tried to think about that.

Then he answered, “No.”

“Then when would it take place if that’s so?”

“Before Sister Location, making FNaF 2 the third in the timeline if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“Ha. I _am_ smarter than you.”

“Sure you are.”

They both laughed, though Peter’s was a bit forced. The young man sighed again, frowning slightly. “Well, FNaF 2 was one of the easiest parts in Help Wanted because of the ability to multitask, so I think that Night Terrors would be more difficult in this case. In other words, FNaF 4 is my final answer.”

“Perfect. Just perfect,” William cheered. “That means Trials two and three will be completed at the same time. How time-efficient!”

“What’s Trial Three?”

“How much fear one can handle.”

Now Peter knew what William meant. Nightmare Fredbear would be there for sure, meaning that he was most likely going to die just out of pure terror.

William cleared his throat, making Peter settle his attention back on the virus.

“Want to know the first step to facing your fears?” he offered, crossing his arms like he was the bravest person on the planet.

“I swear, if you bring a toaster out here—“

“Oh. No, not what I was referring to, but okay.”

Peter barked a laugh. “You’re telling me that you know those dead vines?”

“Don’t recite the Deep Magic to me, Witch. I was there when it was written.”

“My God, Afton, I would have never figured that you knew that shit.”

William made a low chuckle. “I know a lot of things.” After a moment of silence, he continued, “Anyways, the first step to facing your fears… Hmm. I laugh in the face of danger. Show that phobia who’s boss.”

“Alright, Simba, then I want to see you laugh at Cassidy.”

William made a startled cough, drawn aback. He narrowed his eyes. “Good point. But please, don’t mention her.”

“Why? Is she just gonna pop out of the ground like a zombie and kill me?”

“It happened to me. So why wouldn’t it happen to you?”

“Once again, touché.”

Peter looked up at William, now feeling like they had more than one thing in common. Which freaked him out, to be honest. He never thought he’d be connecting with a deceased child murderer. But in a way, it would be hard to tell what Afton had done if someone didn’t know in the first place just by looks. An insane furry, sure, but not a murderer.

William snapped his fingers, making Peter jump. He gestured for him to follow, with he did. Outside the saferoom, Peter could see the real parts and service, followed by familiar party rooms that connected to the long corridor he had walked into. It was in fact Jr’s. Just at the edge of the darkness, he could see the outline of the office.

“I take it that this is where Trial Two will be?” he asked William, who shook his head.

“I just need to take care of something. Stay here.” With that, the virus stalked off in the direction of where the main stage would be.

Peter shifted his weight between his feet, nervous that he would be discovered by any roaming animatronics that resided here. He darted his eyes to the door of parts and service. As if on cue, the door creaked open slightly. Peter held his breath, backing away to the saferoom again, knowing that no animatronic could see him there. It wasn’t in their hard drive of the building for a reason.

He watched as an endoskeleton hand gripped the side of the door, pulling it all the way open. A very distorted voice carried out through the darkness.

“I’m tellin’ ya, Freddy; There’s no one out here.”

Peter instantly recognized it to be Withered Bonnie. No one could forget that voice after his goddamned face puns in UCN. A red light emitted from the room, followed by uneven footsteps; One was metallic and clanged hardly against the floor, while the other was soft and padded. Soon Withered Bonnie was all the way in sight, and the rabbit turned to face another animatronic that had followed him out.

“I swear I heard something,” Withered Freddy whispered. He looked around, joints whirring and clacking. He had his eyes narrowed and blue irises glowing brightly.

“You’re hearing things again. Maybe it was just a rat or something,” Bonnie replied, his head turning to face the direction Peter was standing in.

Peter felt his heart stop. He wondered if the saferoom was visible to them after all. He was bathed in red light from where Bonnie’s eyes would be. The animatronic’s endoskeleton jaw clacked, then he began walking to Peter.

But he stopped right when he reached the doorframe.

“Bon, I think that’s a wall,” Freddy laughed. “I thought you said you knew the place like the back of your hand.”

“Just because I’m blind doesn’t mean I can’t hear what’s going on,” Bonnie retorted. He huffed in annoyance, turning around to walk away. He shouldered past Freddy, continuing on his path to the office. “And I doubt that anyone’s here. Emily told us that no one would check in on us after nine.”

“Perhaps.”

“And I think that if anyone was here, Toy Bonnie would be the first to tell us, if not Mangle. I swear those two can’t stick their noses out of everyone’s business.”

Freddy followed pursuit, and soon their footsteps faded away. Peter let out the breath he was holding, about ready to pass out. Then he laughed. Those two sounded a lot like Bon Bon and Funtime Freddy would. It fit them, too.

He sighed, leaning against the doorframe and crossing one leg over the other. His peace was short-lasted, though. A hand gripped his shoulder, causing him to cry out and jump in the air.

“Where the hell did you come from?”

“I thought you heard me,” William replied. He laughed.

“What were you doing?”

“Nunya.”

“What?”

“None ya business.”

Peter sniggered. “God, it’s so much better to know that you enjoy memes as much as any teenager would.”

William nodded, his eyes drifting past his prisoner for a while. They glazed over in thought, but that stopped when they flashed green for a third time.

“Trial Two is ready. It’s best to get it done and over with so you can leave sooner,” he said.

Peter didn’t reply, standing up straight and cracking his knuckles. He knew William was right. But he also knew he was still screwed. Either way, it still had to be done.

So, he made the bravest, yet most idiotic choice he had ever made. “Let’s kick Fredbear’s ass.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this I see? FriEnDsHiP???? O-O


	4. Goodbye?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Trials fly by faster than expected, and Peter is confused when he finds that he's going to miss William.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol William is cultured and knows memes and vines and shit I don't give a fuck

Darkness. That was all Peter saw, despite the red numbers on the alarm clock situated on the blue dresser. He clutched his flashlight, appreciating the fact that it didn’t have batteries. He turned to face William, who was laying down on the bed behind him, legs crossed and his eyes blissfully shut.

“You know, you can help if you like me so much,” Peter hissed.

William opened one eye slightly to stare at him. “Nah,” he said, closing it again. “You got this.”

“I highly doubt that.” Peter exhaled sharply, watching the numbers on the clock shift.

11:57

11:58

11:59

Finally twelve rolled around. Peter felt his legs go weak in dread, but he shrugged it off, knowing that he had four hours to go without going face-to-face with Fredbear. Then he stopped, hanging on to that final thought.

“Hey Afton.”

“Hmm?”

“Is this going to last a literal six hours, or is it going to be the basic eighty to ninety second hours?”

“Eighty-seven seconds an hour.”

That worked. In a way, it made Peter feel less pressured. It also meant that he didn’t have to go up against Fredbear for two real hours after all. _Lucky me,_ he thought sarcastically.

His flashlight flickered, snapping his attention to the bed again. William was gone, but two small creatures were in his place, screeching like dying cats. He flashed the Freddles, now straining his ears to listen for footsteps on gravel. Or breathing. Either worked.

Then it came. He turned his head to each door, trying to pinpoint which one the sound was coming from. Finally he settled on the left, already putting a tight grip on the handle. He shone his light down the hall, watching a pair of purple eyes disappear around the corner. Nightmare Bonnie.

His flashlight flickered again, and he let out an exasperated sigh before ridding the bed of another Freddle. He then sprinted to the right door, instantly shutting it when he heard coarse breathing. He closed his eyes, praying that Bonnie would stay away until his chicken friend would leave. Or he could stay away overall. That would be much better.

Peter heard Chica walk away, so he let go of the door before flashing another Freddle and moving back to the left door. Just as he touched the handle, running was heard from behind. Peter swiveled around, just in time to see Nightmare Foxy slip into the closet. Perfect. Just perfect.

He checked the hall before crossing over to the closet, closing that before checking inside. He didn’t want to risk Foxy snapping his jaws at him. Inside he found a small plush of the animatronic, and he silently told it to burn in hell. Cute, but it needed to burn.

Another flicker of the flashlight. More Freddle exterminating, more door checking and closing. It was all the same until he looked at the time.

3:54

Shit.

“Laugh in her face,” William shouted. Peter looked around for him, but the virus was not in sight. He narrowed his eyes and puffed out his chest in confidence, then began going from door to door as fast as possible, not even adding to look in the closet or at the bed. Doing so would kill him unless Fredbear laughed, signaling that she was in the room.

As he went back and forth, he began to debate on wether to call Fredbear “she”. Sure, a girl possessed the animatronic, but the robot itself was male. As far as he knew, the Nightmares weren’t possessed at all. So, therefore, he settled on calling Fredbear a he from now on.

Peter’s thoughts were cut off when he heard loud footsteps. They were slower, yet more audible because of the size comparison from the other Nightmares. Peter pinpointed it to be coming from the left, which he was luckily already next to. He shut the door, just then beginning to hear ragged breathing. After what seemed like an eternity, the footsteps began to recede. Just for confirmation, Peter cracked open the door and flashed his light down the hall, exhaling in relief when nothing dangerous was in sight.

A deep laugh reverberated throughout the room, sending chills up his spine. He whipped around to flash the bed, which had the head of the most monstrous thing he had ever seen. Fredbear screeched in pain, the flashlight flickering as the Nightmare left the room again. Peter went to the other door, holding it closed whilst he listened for more sound cues.

Another hour passed, and with it brought the sound of clock chimes and a dog barking.

 _Disregard those sounds,_ he reminded himself, remembering the words from the Freddy Files. _But those clock chimes are_ loud.

And they really were. He almost didn’t hear Fredbear sneak up to the opposite door. He accidentally strobed the flashlight, making Fredbear’s gigantic composure visible. The bear growled, its motors whirring and eyes glowing a blood-red. But there was one sound that mixed in with the rest that made Peter’s stomach turn. It was pitched in a way that was high, yet it was quiet. His brain seemed to be covered in fluff as he gaped at his attacker.

Then he realized why. Illusion chips. It was how William had designed such a monstrosity. All Peter was really facing was a giant endoskeleton with sharp teeth and claws. The costume wasn’t real at all.

But it was still dangerous.

Peter bravely kicked out, sending Fredbear backwards a couple paces. The monster roared in anger, regaining its balance so it could advance again. But Peter slammed the door shut before it could reach him, the wood reverberating with a loud _thump_. Peter laughed aloud, both nervously and excitedly. He’d just slammed a door in his worst nightmare’s face. How ironic.

But his celebration was short lasted when he heard another deep laugh. Twisting around, he flashed the bed, but Fredbear wasn’t there. Shit. This was what caught him all the time in Help Wanted. Fredbear always went to the closet, and he always made the mistake by flashing it before shutting the doors. So Peter promised himself to do the opposite of that this time.

As fast as he could, he reached the closet, pulling the doors shut just as Fredbear began climbing back out. But Peter’s hand slipped, causing the doors to open again, and to allow Fredbear to attack.

He screamed in horror, falling backwards and hitting his head against the carpeted floor. Now Fredbear towered over him even more, its feet shaking the ground with every step. Just as it leaned down and reached its taloned hand outwards to him, an invisible force forced it back. It hissed, jaw clacking and biting at its unseen attacker.

Suddenly Peter’s savior faded into sight in green pixelation. William’s color returned next, and Peter had never been so happy to see the purple vest on yellow fur ever in his life. William was attempting to shove Fredbear away, his feet planted into the ground. Yet he was overpowered, being pushed back. He then conjured a green flame-like aura once again and socked the bear right in the bottom of the chin, sending it toppling away.

William faced Peter with a grim expression. Peter went to shout a warning when Fredbear began making its way behind the virus, but the bear froze. The alarm clock began beeping, telling them both that the night was over. Fredbear withered away, reduced to nothing but mere coding in the mainframe.

“You have no idea how many rules I just broke trying to save you,” William growled. “Do you know how much trouble I could get in?”

“Why? Do you work for somebody or something?” Peter asked.

“Or something,” Afton replied, avoiding the question.

The rabbit offered his hand to Peter, who took it and helped himself off the ground.

“Thank you,” he breathed. William side-glanced him, narrowing his eyes. Though he didn’t reply, it was obvious that his actions were most likely going to get him in deep shit.

Finally, he mumbled, “Don’t mention it. Seriously. If anyone finds out about this, we’ll both die before you can say ‘freeshavacadoo’.”

Peter sniffed in amusement. “I promise I won’t tell a soul.”

William nodded curtly. “You did great, by the way. At least until the last thirty seconds. Face it; Without me, you’d be crawling your way to the light by now.”

“I’ll be sure to act like you’re my lord and savior from now on.”

“And if I ever betray you, feel free to climb into a dryer.”

That made Peter laugh louder than intended. He recited the vine: “I am disgusted, I am revolted! I dedicated my entire life to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and _this_ is the thanks I get?!”

They both chuckled. William smacked a hand against Peter’s back. “You’re alright, kid. You’re alright.”

Peter was allowed a break, which was only supposed to last an hour, but really lasted about two. William had dropped him off at the saferoom again, then left to take care of something important. He was sitting against the wall, whistling a song that he had heard over the radio once. He caught himself staring at Springbonnie from time to time, intrigued by how much more decayed it looked from the last time he saw it. It had only been a couple minutes, right? Maybe fifteen.

The more decayed part about it was how much more _green_ it was. Mold didn’t grow that fast.

Curious, he got up and crossed the room to the springlocked victim to observe it closer. Knowing that it was William made the situation a bit more weird. He crouched down right next to the costume, running a finger lightly down its torso’s fabric. More blood, and a bit of a green substance along with it.

Peter looked up into its dead eyes, noticing how much more gray they appeared than earlier. Leaning in closer, he tried to ignore the smell the best he could. He was mere inches away before its eyes moved to look at him. He yelped in surprise, falling onto his butt in a painful manner. He went to scoot away from Springbonnie, but the wall stopped him. Peter prayed that it wouldn’t get up and kill him.

But it never moved, despite its eyes darting to and fro to look at its surroundings. They stared at each other for a while, at least until Peter decided to move closer again. Springbonnie’s eyes watched his every move, the silver iris beginning to glow a bit brighter. Was that meant to represent fear? Confusion? Flat out hatred?

“It won’t talk back, in case you’re wondering.”

Peter jumped slightly at the sound of William’s voice. He turned his head to address him, then quickly went back to his little staring contest with his captor’s fake twin.

“Why is it — I mean, he — or you, I don’t know — well, alive? He wasn’t last time I checked.”

William was quiet for a moment before answering, “The Remnant is just now getting to the internal system. He’s waking up for the first time in three years.”

“Damn,” was Peter’s only reply. He went to touch Springbonnie’s face, but the animatronic’s pupils dilated in fear. It seemed to be the only movement it could make at the moment.

“It’ll take another two years for his entire motor system to regain full control. For now, all he can do is look around.”

“I wish you would stop reading my mind,” Peter hissed, but was interested to hear more about how Remnant worked. He knew it was the main substance that brought the animatronics that weren’t possessed to life, but other than that, he knew zilch.

“How’d you even get a hold of the Remnant anyways?” Peter finally asked. “I mean, you were dead and all. And it wasn’t like other people knew about it, let alone knew that you died. Except for Michael, maybe…”

“Don’t talk about him,” William remarked sternly. He sighed, taking a seat next to Peter on the floor Indian style. He stroked the side of Springbonnie’s face gently, earning a _very_ confused look from the springlocked victim. “Take a wild guess about who wanted me to live in pain and torture for an eternity,” he finally answered.

Peter looked at him with concern, knowing the answer. “I’m sorry,” he apologized, though he didn’t know exactly what he was apologizing for.

“It’s not your fault, kid. If anything, I brought it upon myself,” William replied. Then, out of the blue, he asked, “What do you think the next Trial will be for you?”

“Why are you asking me? I’ve already proved that I’m smart, brave, and have quick reflexes. What else is there to demonstrate?

“You just killed someone. How do you hide the body?”

That took Peter by surprise. “Um…” He genuinely thought hard about that, watching the expression on Afton’s face go from curious to pained.

“Sorry,” Peter apologized.

“No. Keep thinking. By all means, give me a migraine.”

Peter laughed. After a couple more minutes of thinking, he finally answered with, “Well, I would bury the body in rich soil first — rich as in nutrients, not money. Then I would plant a tree over it, making it harder to dig back up because of the public’s opinion on digging up trees. Over time, its roots will grow and cover the body, therefore making it relatively impossible for it to be discovered.”

William was obviously taken aback by that. He cleared his throat, tugging on his bowtie in nervousness. He chuckled, replying, “Damn. Not what I expected. You’re very curious of your recourses.”

“Actually, I read it on Tumblr once.”

William made a sound halfway between a wheeze and a laugh. He shook his head, laughing once more. “Like I said, you use your recourses to your advantage. Trial Four is complete. Congratulations.”

“How many more are there?”

Afton avoided eye contact, shifting his gaze to every possible object in the room besides Peter himself. He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Well, to be honest, no one has ever gotten this far. I guess I never really planned ahead to this at all.”

“So that’s it? You’re going to take over my mind now?”

Peter hoped it wasn’t so. But at the same time, he knew it was for a good cause. But a bad one at the same time. It really depended on what William was planning to do when he was free. Earlier, he would have denied anything involving the subject. Now, after spending time with him, he actually felt like they had indeed grown as friends.

Afton put a hand on his shoulder, still avoiding eye contact. “I don’t think so,” he whispered, halfway to himself. “I don’t think I could bring myself to do it.”

“So I get to leave?”

“Y-yes. You do. But, if you come back…”

“I know. I’m done for.”

If it was possible, William would have made a genuine smile. Then, surprisingly, the virus enveloped Peter in a giant bear hug. “I’ll miss you, Graven. No doubt about it.”

“I never thought I’d say this, but… I’ll miss you too.”

“There’s a first time for everything.”

Peter made a breathy laugh. “Is there any other possible way we could communicate? Social media, other online or technological ways… Since you’re a code and all.”

“Perhaps. Most likely. But I think it’s best to just leave it here. Be glad you don’t have to deal with me anymore.”

They broke the hug, Peter a little reluctant to do so. “So I guess this is it.”

“I suppose it is.”

“Goodbye, then. See you on the flipside.”

William laughed as he summoned the room around him to transform into the original main screen of the game. “Change da world. My final message.”

“Goodbye,” Peter finished, swallowing a lump in his throat. He waved, and William waved back. The virus then began to slowly fade away, leaving behind a small glitched plush of himself. Peter bent down to pick it up, laughing to himself. A possible souvenir, he supposed.

With that, he spent a good half hour to search for the door back to the rest of the testing facility, saddened even more when the plush faded away as well when he tried to take it with him.

~*^*~

“What do you mean, you let him go?”

“I mean that I let him go.”

“Of all times to act like you have a heart, Afton, now is your best option?”

William did his best to track Emily’s pacing, but being outside of the game this long had drained him of most of his peripheral vision. So, he was left with watching a fast-moving blur.

“You were so close. _So close_. And right when you had him, you let him go,” Emily continued. “I thought you were absolutely desperate to leave.”

“I am. And I let him go for a reason,” William replied slowly. Emily stopped to look at him.

“And what reason would that be?”

“It’s all part of the final Trial. Loyalty. If he comes back, I’ll know that he’s the right one for the job.”

Emily was silent as she considered that. Then she walked right up to William and poked him in the chest, saying, “If this is just an excuse to say you like him too much, your ass is grass. Don’t forget who I’m associated with.”

Afton shivered mockingly. “Oh, I’m quivering with _fear_. I wouldn’t _dream_ of going up against _her_.”

Emily furrowed her brow in anger. She was fuming, but said nothing. William almost laughed when he pictured her with smoke coming out of her ears. He exhaled shakily, using the strength he had to literally keep himself together. He had gone to sit down earlier and nearly fell to the floor due to the pixel-like particles parting. Embarrassing, weakening, but it had a cool look to it. Though green wasn’t his favorite color.

He gave up on waiting for Emily to reply, for he was hardly seeing his own hand in front of his face. As he transported himself back to the game’s code, he regretted it slightly due to the unsettling tingling feeling. He shook it off, deciding to go torture some unsuspecting animatronic with his “cultured” knowledge. Five-year-olds had almost no culture at all.

But as he spent a couple hours making up snappy downgrading comebacks with the animatronics in the Sister Location section of the game, he realized he wasn’t having as much fun as usual. After a while, he began thinking about what it would have been like if Peter was there. Shaking that thought away for the twelfth time, he tried to contemplate on his horrible life choices. But that just made him think of Peter even more.

Now as he laid sitting next to his own springlocked self again, he began talking to himself. In more ways than one.

“I just don’t get it. I hate everyone and everyone hates me. So why would I feel differently about it now of all times?”

His friend’s reply was a confused blink.

“I mean, sure, he’s different than most people I’ve come across. For once, he doesn’t seem afraid of me. You know what I mean, right?”

Another blink, and now it seemed like his other self was staring at him like he was crazy. He didn’t blame himself for that, either.

“Nevermind. Talking to myself will get me nowhere. Since, well, you can’t talk back and all.”

The half-dead William looked like he wanted to do anything but sit next to his future self. If he could move, he’d most likely be inching away by now.

The real William sighed in exasperation. He stood, brushing himself off before promptly walking away. But then he realized that would get him nowhere. That made him wish he was able to see the light of day again.

He wished that Peter would consider coming back.

~*^*~

Peter growled to himself as he stuffed another empty chip bag into a trash bag. He had had a sudden urge to clean his apartment, and so far, after three full garbage bags full of crap, he’d only cleaned one room of the entire place, which was his own bedroom.

He wondered why he had been so careless taking care of his own home. Maybe it started after he had gone down that dark hole of incompletion when Help Wanted came out. Speaking of which, he had finally beat Night Terrors, and then Pizza Party. Being in close proximity with Glitchtrap but never actually getting to interact with him was a bit unsettling compared to what he had gone through recently. Merging with the virus was saddening, because deep down in his gut, he knew that William would most likely never get to see the light of day.

Unless Peter decided to go back.

It had crossed his mind many times, especially while playing Night Terrors. He knew the only reason he had beaten it was because of what Afton had taught him about facing his fears. Plus the fact that he had faced a much worse version of Nightmare Fredbear in real life.

All the while through Pizza Party, he had said to himself, _I do trust you._ Before meeting William in person, he would have said the complete opposite. It made him wonder if the murderer had in fact done something to his mind.

Peter stopped to rest for a while, his back aching from bending over so much. He sat down on his old worn-out couch, which was already caked in useless stuff, and laid his head back, seemingly given up on life overall. He looked to his left, where an old Bonnie plush was resting on a coffee table. It was dusty, the purple fabric almost turned to a gray lavender. He remembered the day he got that, which was at a video game convention. It was signed by Scott Cawthon minutes after Peter met him.

He picked it up, blowing the dust bunnies — ha ha — off, looking at the tag. There it was. He wondered how much this thing was worth now. Probably somewhere around eighty, but maybe less due to how much FNaF had lost its popularity.

But the plush also reminded him of something different. Peter groaned, tossing the plush aside. He hid his face in his hands, trying to think of something other than William. It just wasn’t natural, thinking about someone like this. Not unless…

No. Not possible. It wasn’t going to happen in any way at all. If anything, it would be illegal because of the fucking age gap. Besides, the man was a friggin child murder.

Was.

He _had_ changed. He wasn’t that bad at all. But that was the problem.

If anything, all Peter needed right now was a fucking therapist for what he had gone through. But… just maybe…

He looked at the floor in the one spot he had avoided because of what lay on the floor, focusing on the address. It wouldn’t hurt to say hi, would it?


	5. When All Hell Breaks Loose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter and William are back together, and this time it's for good. They merge their consciousnesses, though their escape from the facility ends up going in an entirely different direction when Cassidy makes her grand entrance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> gay love yes I hate myself XD

The clouds were dark and nearly black, thunder already beginning to sound and reverberate throughout the city. It was only sprinkling, but a huge storm was bound to be on its way. In a sense, it made the day seem a bit more gloomy than it already was, which didn’t help with Peter’s initial plan.

He sat in his truck, hand stroking his chin as he thought over how he should go about this. He stared across the alleyway, striating his eyes to focus on the door at the end in the darkness.

“Come work for us,” they said. “You won’t fall in a gay relationship with a child murderer that died and turned into a game virus at all!” they said.

Screw that shit.

Peter climbed out of his truck, putting the hood of his jacket up to fend off the rain that had increased in mass and heaviness in the past five minutes. If he was doing this, he had to do it quick. Preferably before the whole street was either flooded by rain or on fire by lightning.

City living sucked.

He slammed the truck door, putting his hands in his pockets as he made his way down the alley, hesitating before opening the door. He stepped inside the elevator, waiting for that creepy voice to come online.

 _“Name, please,”_ it finally asked, still as monotone as ever.

Peter thought for a moment before answering, “Erin. Floor B3F, please.” He couldn’t believe that he still remembered those words.

_“Request acknowledged.”_

The elevator screeched to a start, and Peter began whistling along to the familiar tune of the music that was playing on the overhead speakers. He had to do something to keep his mind off things. But then he remembered what the elevator’s voice sounded like. Apparently GLaDOS did get a comeback after Portal2 after all.

Finally the moment came when the elevator stopped, allowing him to walk out into the dark cobalt-gray corridor that contained all the testing rooms. He almost made it all the way to his office without having to hide to avoid being seen. He pressed himself against the wall, holding his breath as he heard the voices approach him. But something was off about one of them.

“Have you ran diagnostics on the Remnant yet? Emily’s getting pretty anxious about the results.”

Erin. That was instantly recognizable.

“Not yet. I still n-need to find another sample.”

An animatronic. And it sounded really glitched out, too. But how was that possible? As far as Peter knew, they couldn’t leave the game.

“Besides, you should know if I did. I am your shared consciousness, you know.”

“Don’t remind me.”

Peter watched Erin pass him, followed by a black silhouette. No, not a silhouette, but rather a shadow. It was Shadow Bonnie.

But that wasn’t the most surprising bit. What was surprising was the part about the shared consciousness. Peter thought that only William could do that. Apparently not.

He waited a few seconds after Erin was out of sight before he continued on his path to his office. When he got there, he was quite hesitant to enter it. Maybe he shouldn’t do this.

 _Well, I’ve gone this far,_ he told himself. _It’s not like I can go back._

So, he opened the door, tapping his foot on the white floor twice. The familiar Help Wanted main screen fell into place, along with a very surprised virus.

“Holy shit. You actually came back,” William mused.

Peter nodded, a smile beginning to play on his lips. “I couldn’t leave you here to rot.”

“Bah. What was another forty-one years gonna do, anyways?” He laughed, walking forwards to hug Peter. “You really shouldn’t have come back. You know what’s going to happen now.”

“I know. And I don’t care. It’s not like I have an important life anyways,” Peter replied, hugging his friend as tight as he could. “You deserve to see the sun again.”

“Yeah, well, I checked the weather. It’s not sunny out.”

“Thank you, Captain Obvious.”

They both laughed, breaking the hug. Peter watched William’s expression go from happy, to sad, to disappointed, to confused, then back to sadness again.

“I wish there was another way. I really do,” he said. “But, you passed Trial Five. So now, I have to do it.”

“There was a fifth Trial?” Peter echoed.

“Loyalty. And once again, you passed with flying colors.”

“And one more question.”

“Hmm?”

“What would happen if you didn’t possess me? Or won’t, in this case.”

William narrowed his eyes, then sighed. “I suppose that I’d have to tell you sooner or later.”

He gestured for Peter to sit at one of the dining tables, which he did. Once William was seated across from him, he rested his elbows on the table before addressing him.

“I’m not the only vengeful spirit looking for a way out,” he whispered.

Peter’s eyes widened. Great.

“Cassidy followed me here, being the bitch of the century she is. Luckily, she made a deal with me. If I leave this game in a matter of three years, she wouldn’t bother me ever again. If I don’t, well, I’m as good as gone. So, I set up the Trials to make the best of the situation, making sure the people I came across were suitable. No one came anywhere close to passing the second Trial. But then—“

“There was me,” Peter finished.

“Precisely.”

Peter looked down at the table cloth, mindlessly counting how many confetti markings were laid overtop the white. He wasn’t necessarily avoiding the conversation, but he was a little concerned about the situation itself. He found himself looking back up into William’s eyes once more, wondering what it would be like for the virus to take over his mind. Would it be painful or not? Would he ever get to live normally ever again?

“I can’t answer those questions. I’ve never done this before,” William explained. “But we need to do it quick. I have a literal thirty seconds to leave this game before my three years are up.” He stood up, looking behind him before speaking again, “And you do _not_ want to see Cassidy when she’s pissed.”

Peter found himself getting up to meet William at his side. He grabbed the virus’s wrist, forcing the murderer to look at him.

“Then do it,” he said firmly.

William guiltily evaded his eye contact again. “I don’t feel right about this.”

Before Peter could argue, another voice broke out across the room.

“ _I_ do.”

Both man and rabbit twisted around to face a figure standing in the darkness. As they stepped into the light, Peter’s breath caught in his throat.

“Emily,” William addressed. “Five more minutes and I’ll be out of your hair.”

“You had three years,” a second female said. “And I’ve waited forty-one to see you to justice.”

That was the first time Peter had seen genuine fear etched across William’s face. The murder took a wary step back, glaring at an unseen enemy.

Finally the second figure showed themselves. Peter almost mistaked it to be Freddy, but it was much different than that. For one thing, instead of the natural coal-black bowtie and hat, it was a brightly glowing hot purple. Her fur wasn’t brown, but rather an old and ragged yellowish-tan color — just like that of Glitchtrap’s fabric.

Cassidy looked down at William, a foot and a half taller than her killer. Peter shrunk away, avoiding the golden bear’s attention for the time being. But Emily had caught a hold of his arm, pulling it tightly to her side.

“You aren’t going anywhere,” she hissed, her eyes flashing a familiar lime green. Peter wanted to wrench away from her grasp, but something kept him from doing so. Her eyes… They were just so mesmerizing.

“Emily, leave him alone,” William shouted. Before he could say any more, Cassidy stuck out a hand to grasp his throat.

“I highly doubt that will ever happen,” she growled, pulling Afton off of his feet and up to her eye level. “You’ve escaped me once, twice, even a third time. But now, I know just the thing to make sure you never do it again.”

Peter really wanted to do something about this. But he couldn’t tear his gaze from Emily’s piercing eyes. A faint ringing sounded in his ears, and that was enough to make him realized why this was happening. So, he did the one thing that would make sure William heard him without the others being able to.

 _Where’s Cassidy’s chip?_ he thought loudly, forcing it to William. The virus glanced back at him, then returned his focus on Cassidy.

But then something unexpected happened. William struck his heel into his captor’s chest, causing Cassidy’s grip to falter and making her double over in pain. Peter contemplated in wether robots could feel pain for a split second, then went back to watching the fight unfold.

William then shoved his hand in between the gap where the head met the torso, clutching the endoskeleton inside. He then ripped something out, causing a flash of sparks come shooting out from Cassidy’s neck.

Suddenly Peter didn’t feel so entranced. He found the strength to grab Emily’s arm and twist it, causing the woman to howl in pain. He threw her onto the ground, backing away in hopes that she wouldn’t get back up anytime soon.

In the meantime, Cassidy had echoed Emily’s screams of agony. She was clutching the same areas Peter had struck on his captor, her white eyes flashing lime green. William reflected Peter’s own confused expression, taking a step back.

“They’ve merged,” he said. “They feel each other’s pain. But that also means if we kill Emily, we kill Cassidy, too.”

Peter glanced back at Emily, who was heaving for breath and attempting to prop herself up.

“I don’t want to kill anyone,” he replied.

“We might have to if we want to live.”

“Isn’t there another option?”

“Yes. We run.”

“But you can’t leave the game unless…”

William stared at Peter, a very serious look causing the other to stop talking altogether. The virus calmly took Peter’s hand, a green wave of energy wafting in between them.

“Are you absolutely positive you want to do this?” he asked, glimpsing at the green energy pulsing between their hands.

“As sure as I’ve ever been about anything in my life.”

William could have smiled wider at that moment. He then closed his eyes, his entire figure beginning to fade away into a green silhouette of himself. Peter felt his entire arm go numb, a cold wave surging throughout his entire body. Suddenly his head felt a lot more cluttered, and he could hardly notice that William had disappeared completely.

“No!”

He snapped his attention to Cassidy, who was now back on her feet and rubbing the area where her illusion chip had been.

“Don’t you dare move a hair outside this room!” she howled, now beginning to storm to Peter.

The young man yelped in surprise, nearly tripping over his own feet as he ran in the opposite direction. He then stopped when he realized that he didn’t know where the door was to leave.

**_Just next to the prize corner._ **

He gasped, squinting his eyes at the sudden new sharp pain in his head.

_Afton?_

**_Move!_ **

As if on cue, Cassidy had thrown a punch at Peter. He yelped when he involuntarily leapt away. He didn’t make any hesitation when he sprinted towards the prize corner, nearly running into the glass counter as he changed direction. The fast move had thrown Cassidy off course, sending her crashing into the counter instead. The glass shattered, flying everywhere, along with various candy bars, snack bags, and a lot of action figures and plushes.

While Cassidy was trying to regain her balance, Peter took his advantage to run out the nearly invisible door to the outside. But just as he was about to run out, he was stopped by a black mass.

“I wouldn’t move if I-I were you,” Shadow Bonnie hissed. His white eyes flashed brightly, almost blinding Peter.

 ** _Don’t stop. Just run right through him,_ **William shouted, making Peter snap back to reality.

He took a deep breath, then walked right through the black rabbit. Shadow Bonnie made a surprised gasp, his image faltering into a glitched form of himself. He turned to watch Peter continue running.

“H-he’s getting away!” he screeched.

Peter rounded a corner, slipping on the smooth floor. He caught himself on the wall, continuing on his break for the elevator. He nearly thought he was good until someone blocked his path. It was Justin.

“Justin! Please, I need to get through!” Peter told him, but Justin shook his head, squinting his eyes shut.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “He won’t let me.”

“Who?” Peter asked, but Afton cut off his thoughts again.

 ** _You need to back up,_** he warned. Peter went to ask why, but a pained wail from Justin made him stop.

The taller man buckled over in anguish, wheezing for breath. Then it seemed like his skin was practically peeling away from his body.

**_Great. Get out of here before “Mr Stark, I don’t feel so good” kicks our ass._ **

But Peter was rooted to the spot in fear, watching Justin’s transformation in awe and disgust. The older man’s form changed altogether, revealing something that Peter would have never imagined he’d ever see before.

The animatronic before him growled predatorily, jaw clacking its sharp teeth together. His orange eyes shone brightly, hook swiping to the ground for support.

“Aw, shit,” Peter said to himself, turning to make a run for it.

Nightmare Foxy roared in anger, the sound making the entire hallway shake. There was the clang of metal against the polished floor, along with the screech of the Nightmare’s hook against the wall as he ran in pursuit of his prey.

 _How many merged animatronics are there?_ Peter asked William, who growled in annoyance.

**_Why are you asking_ me _? I don’t know what the hell’s going on, either!_**

Peter had to stop running when he was stopped yet again, this time by Cassidy herself.

“You’re not going anywhere, brat,” she hissed.

Peter went to take a step back, but his back hit his previous hunter’s chest. Nightmare Foxy growled, lowering his mouth to Peter’s ear, his hot breath tickling the skin.

**_My turn._ **

Then in the matter of a split second, Peter saw William materialize in front of him, sending a shockwave of purple energy bursting through the air. The blast sent both animatronics flying backwards, but the sender and his shared consciousness remained standing. William then faced Peter, narrowing his eyes before disappearing again. That’s when Peter screamed.

Apparently Justin wasn’t the only one that could transform into their possessor. Peter felt his mind go from dominant to secondary as he watched himself change.

_What in the hell?!_

“Best not to ask questions, kid,” William growled. He stepped over Nightmare Foxy, flipping the unconscious monster off before strutting his way down the hall.

 _How did you do that? Is this permanent? Can I change back? Is this even_ normal _?_ Peter rambled, causing William to falter his stride.

 ** _Shut up and just act like everything’s normal,_ **he replied.

 _But everything’s_ not _normal! For fuck’s sake, Afton, I just changed into you! That’s not natural! It defies physics! The natural law!_

**_Be quiet, will you? I’m trying to make sure we’re not being followed._ **

Peter stopped thinking. Well, he bean thinking about not thinking for the second time in the past twenty-four hours. William huffed in amusement and annoyance, making a mental sweep of the area before stepping into the elevator.

As soon as the doors shut, Afton slammed his hand into the lift’s circuitry, causing the lights to flicker.

_Now what are you doing?_

“Upgrading our transportation,” William replied in a matter-of-fact tone. He drew his hand away, causing the lights to go normal again. Then it began moving upwards at a faster pace than normal.

_Nice._

**_I tend to have that effect on everyone._ **

But their celebration was short-lived. A white line of energy cut through the center of the elevator, expanding into an oval that looked like it had been drawn by a preschooler. A black hand gripped the edge of the portal, heaving the rest of its body out. The portal flashed, closing behind him. Now, in the dim lighting, he was hardly visible except for his white eyes and teeth.

“S-smart thinking, but not nearly as f-fast as you need to go to run from us,” he hissed.

William didn’t move a muscle. Peter could feel the emotions coursing through his mind, though. Fear. Anger. The sudden urge to punch a wall. The living virus only showed one of these emotions slightly as he narrowed his eyes.

“Ah, Shadow. I see that you’re doing well,” he addressed.

“Nice try, Afton. I know w-what you’re up to.”

“You know, we’re more alike than you think,” William continued. “We’re both glitches. We both look like overgrown Easter Bunnies. What isn’t there to love?”

“The fact that you’re not d-dead.”

“Ah. That is a good reason.”

_He’ll be easy to fend off. Just walk through him like you told me to._

**_It’s not that simple. Walking through him won’t get rid of him. If anything, his non-physicalness makes him nearly impossible to fight._ **

Shadow Bonnie extended his right arm, spreading his fingers while summoning a white flame of energy around them. William made a sound that was halfway between a choke and a gasp, clutching his chest.

Bonnie then slowly closed his hand into a fist, the white aura glowing brighter. William then stopped breathing altogether, his mind going into that downwards spiral of fear of death and the fact that he couldn’t breath. The mess of thoughts made Peter’s head hurt, making him wish he could do something.

The black rabbit made a glitched and distorted chuckle, raising his fist higher into the air, making William howl in anguish and pain. Peter also felt like he was having his heart ripped out of his chest in the slowest, most painful way possible. Shared pain was a bitch. Peter then had an idea that was crazy as hell, but it just might work.

_William! Listen to me!_

The virus went to make a reply, but another slight raise of Shadow Bonnie’s fist stopped him from doing so, replacing that thought with another scream.

_Change back! If his victim suddenly disappears, he’ll stop killing us both just to try the process all over again._

There was a moment of silence from William’s own train of thought, then Peter felt his mind take over again. He found himself kneeling on the ground in front of a seven-foot black bunny, the expression on the shadow’s face go from triumphant to confused. Peter then remembered that he didn’t think past the transformation bit.

But luckily, the elevator screeched to a halt before Shadow Bonnie could react quick enough to stop Peter from bolting out the door.

Peter slammed the door behind him, still running until he was safe inside of his pickup truck. He heaved for breath, nearly choking on his own air.

“Good job, kid.”

Peter looked to his right to see William sitting in the passenger’s seat. He had his feet propped up on the dashboard, seemingly forgotten about what he had just been through.

“For what?” Peter asked, starting the truck. He didn’t want to take any chances of another animatronic bursting through the door to attack him.

“You have good ideas. Without you, we’d both be dead,” William explained. He turned his head to look out the window, sighing. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen outside. Where are we, anyways?”

“Hurricane. Only a true FNaF fan would move here just to connect with their fandom. I bet it’s changed a lot since you’ve last seen it.”

“Yeah. Well, granted by the look of this alley. I’ve never seen this before.”

Peter chuckled as he put the truck into drive, pulling out of his parallel parking spot and into the street. “I’d take you on a tour, but I’m a little busy running from certain death right now.”

William’s only reply was a bark of laughter. He sighed contently again, propping his head up with the palm of his hand. That moment right there almost made Peter’s heart melt. The fact that someone who had been trapped in darkness for over forty years was seeing the outside for the first time since then was just too precious.

Peter’s mushy thoughts were halted when he almost swerved off the road due to a rain puddle. He yelped, twisting the steering wheel so that they didn’t end up with the front end of the truck crushed against a street lamp.When he got back on a straight path, he exhaled in relief.

“Good thing the rain seasons are almost over. But then it’s back to dry weather, and then snow. Hurricane’s beautiful and all, but Mother Nature really needs to take a chill pill,” he said.

William nodded in agreement. “Must be worse because of global warming. I can’t believe how much the world’s changed,” he replied. He then looked at Peter with an amused expression. “You know, it’s useless to keep secrets now. I basically have an archive on your life at my fingertips. So, just spit it out.”

Peter made a nervous cough of surprise.

“I have no idea what you mean.”

“Sure you don’t.”

After a while, Peter finally pulled to a stop at the apartment complex. William had disappeared so he wouldn’t be seen on the street. It just wasn’t natural to see a man in a rejected fursuit romping down the sidewalk. It would also ruin Peter’s reputation as the strange quiet guy.

 _Now, my apartment’s not all that nice,_ he thought to Afton. _I am planning on cleaning it, though._

**_Why should I care? Hell, I’ve dealt with rotting corpses and moldy, wet saferooms. How bad can your house be?_ **

_It depends,_ Peter replied as he put the key in his door, walking into his messy living room. It still had five trash bags plus a half-full one sitting in the center of the room. _I can hardly walk through it._

**_When’s the last time you did a deep clean?_ **

_Um…_

**_You know it’s bad if you can’t remember._ **

William materialized next to Peter again, an amused twinkle in his eyes. He looked at his shared consciousness, a silent laugh making his shoulders shake.

“What?” Peter asked, avoiding eye contact and picking up where he left off on cleaning.

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

William stayed out for a couple minutes before beginning to follow Peter around the room. After a while, the younger man growled in annoyance.

“Can I help you?”

“I was wondering if _I_ could help _you_.”

“Okay?”

“Answer the question.”

Shit. There it was. Peter froze, his forehead beading with sweat already. He put the garbage bag back down on the floor, debating on how he should answer this.

“Take your time. I’ve got an eternity.”

“Smart-ass,” Peter muttered. He turned to look at William for a moment, then continued cleaning. He could feel the other’s gaze burn through the back of his skull in waiting, the situation itself becoming a little too overwhelming.

Then Peter cursed when he noticed the bag was full. So he turned around to grab another empty one, but collided with William, sending them both falling to the floor.

“Oh God,” he whimpered, scrambling away. But William grabbed his arm before he could move too far. Peter looked into the sentient virus’s eyes, his heart skipping a couple beats. He thought that he could get lost in them forever.

William chuckled, pulling Peter back down. The smaller man yelped in surprise. “You do realize there’s no reason to hide it,” Afton said. He wrapped his arms around Peter, holding him there.

“I told you that there’s nothing _to_ hide,” Peter replied sternly. But he made no move to get away. He laid there, closing his eyes and relishing the warmth.

William sighed, reaching a hand up to stroke Peter’s brown hair.

They remained that way for what seemed like an eternity, Peter finally falling asleep, leaving William trapped under him and laying on the hard floor. But he didn’t mind that much. He didn’t mind at all.

But he knew this wouldn’t last forever. He thought back to their escape from the testing facility, remembering that Cassidy wouldn’t rest until she had him in her grasp. It was going to be a long couple of years if they had to remain on the run.

So, William did the best he could at the moment to shield him and his partner from being discovered, putting up a force field around their minds. If only he could take away the Remnant though… It was a good thing Emily hadn’t gotten a hold of that.

•••••

Erin set down the test tube carefully on the countertop, knowing that one drop of this substance would melt his skin clean off. This was why he had always left that responsibility to Shadow Bonnie. The glitch was a genius at this stuff, but not so much about biology or anything like that. That was why they had split their jobs amongst each other, which got the job done a lot quicker than it normally would.

And right now that wasn’t the case.

“You really need to up your game on this shit,” he sighed, putting a dropped into the test tube, placing the collected substance under a microscope. “I thought you’d have been able to crack this stuff by now.”

“Thanks, b-but it’s more difficult than you think. Any other Remnant, and I’d have f-figured it out by now. But William’s is very complex. I wonder how m-much time he spent perfecting it.”

Shadow Bonnie took the test tube for himself, scanning it over in attempt to narrow down what made this Remnant so different.

“Well, if it’s so complex, then why is it so hard to pinpoint from everyone else’s?”

“Because Cassidy h-has the same type.”

“That does make a difference.”

Erin growled to himself, feeling like he could strangle someone right now. He had twenty-four hours to crack this, and he felt nowhere near where he was supposed to be. He felt like he hadn’t budged a bit since he started working on this project.

It made him wonder why he was chosen for this project at all. Hailey and Ennard could have figured this out by now. Erin glanced back at Shadow Bonnie, who was still scanning the vial. He wasn’t his favorite animatronic, but he was cool enough. Oh, how he’d dreamed of being Springtrap’s shared consciousness. But no, Emily absolutely insisted that Shadow bonnie was the perfect match for him.

He growled again, tearing his gaze from the pitch black shadow. He wondered what his life would be like right now if he’d never showed up for that interview two years ago. He’d probably be another random Joe walking on the sidewalk, enjoying a normal day like everyone else. He missed it. And he wasn’t the only one that did.

•••••

Justin whimpered, shying away from Nightmare Foxy’s hook. He never liked this. He never wanted to be a fighter. He never thought he’d end up like this; at the mercy of an animatronic pirate fox that was the materialization of someone’s nightmares, who was also his shared consciousness.

Foxy lowered his hook, shaking his head in disappointment.

“You won’t get anywhere if ye keep running away like that, lad,” he said. “I won’t be able to take over all the time, ye know.”

The fox was kind, despite his menacing appearance. But he was even more terrifying when he was mad. The Nightmare would take the form of one of the three Halloween animatronics. He was much more aggressive, let alone much more dangerous; He did have a scythe and fire bursting from his body.

“Sorry,” Justin whispered.

“Don’t be sorry. Ye just aren’t cut out for fightin’, that’s all.”

“Then why am I here?”

“We’re all here for a reason, lad. Fate intertwines us all in some way. The universe just wants you here for a cause, but it’s up to ye to find that cause.”

Justin considered that for a moment. He sighed, knowing that his friend was right.

_But maybe the universe is wrong._

•••••

Peter yawned, nuzzling his nose into the soft fabric of whatever heavenly object he was laying on. He stretched his legs, hugging the object tightly. Then his eyes snapped open in realization. He lifted his head up to see William’s face, which had its eyes closed in content rest. Peter made a nervous exhale, laying his head back down on Afton’s chest. He wondered what to call their newfound relationship now, since it wasn’t exactly a secret anymore.

But then he slowed his thinking when he realized that he might wake up William. That was one of the many downfalls to shared thoughts.

Then the rabbit made a small noise that sounded like a moan and a grunt, his hand reaching to his eyes. Peter froze, closing his eyes and praying that William wouldn’t wake up. Not yet.

“It’s kinda hard when you’re awake in general,” William laughed.

Shit.

“Sorry,” Peter whispered back, hesitating before rolling off of his partner.

“Don’t be. It was the first good night’s sleep I’ve had in years.” William yawned himself, turning over to his side and curling up slightly into a ball. He then stretched like a cat would, all four limbs outstretched as far as they could go before he returned to his previous position. Peter couldn’t help but snigger.

“I never knew you were so soft,” he said.

William turned back to him, cocking an eyebrow. “Not the strangest thing I’ve heard in my life, but okay,” he replied, reaching out to muss up Peter’s hair.

Peter made a surprised yelp, ducking out of the way. He laughed, swatting William’s hand away before it could do any more damage to his already messy hair. He then waited until William was back to laying on his back to lay down on him again. The virus chuckled, putting an arm around his partner.

They remained that way for another hour, exchanging small talk through their thoughts. But after a while, Peter could tell something was up. He focussed in on William’s mind, trying to pinpoint the one thought that had put their conversation at hold.

**_She’ll find us eventually._ **

Peter knew exactly who he was referring to, and why William had shaded that thought from the rest. But since he now knew what his friend was hiding, he was bound to get caught nosing around in his mind.

 ** _Some things are kept secret for a reason,_** William chimed in. Yep. There it was.

 _Says the overgrown rabbit that told me there’s no use to keep any secrets,_ Peter replied stubbornly.

There was a mental sigh from William. **_That’s different. I actually have some dark stuff going on in my head that you’re too pure to know._**

_How so?_

**_I don’t think you want to know the best ways to gruesomely murder someone and hide the body at the same time._ **

_Good point._

Peter raised his head to look at the time. Then he realized that his clock had broken a year ago. But judging by the amount of sunlight coming through the blinds in the window, he estimated it was about nine in the morning.

“You want to go on that tour?” he suggested. “It’s plenty sunny out now, and I doubt there’ll be any animatronics roaming the sidewalk.”

“It’s not like I have anything better to do,” Afton replied. He sat up with an exaggerated groan, stretching his arms out.

“Old man.”

“Hey! I was forty-three when I died, thank you very much.”

“Eighty-four if you count the afterlife.”

“Touché.”

Peter laughed, standing up and stretching for himself. Then he walked to the door, grabbing his jacket from the hook. William caught on to this, disappearing before resting back into the edge of Peter’s mind.

 ** _I want to see one thing before we go on our little tour,_** he said. **_It’s just on the outskirts of Hurricane. Hidden by forestland, but it’s still there. Maybe._**

_Of course. May I ask what it is?_

**_Just planning to visit a couple of my old inventions. I just wonder if they’re still there, given it’s been a while since it closed in ’85._ **

_Fredbear’s?_

**_Correct._ **

_If Fazbear Entertainment was so dead set on making sure that they had a clean slate, then wouldn’t they have torn down the place by now?_

**_No. They don’t have the rights. Fredbear’s was never theirs to begin with. Besides, its owner is still alive, so there’s one more thing._ **

_Henry’s alive?_

**_Regrettably, yes._ **

Peter locked the door behind him, making his way to the exit. He kept his head down, avoiding eye contact with any passing neighbors. He waited until he was outside to reply to William’s statement.

_You really hate him, don’t you?_

**_You would too, if he burned you alive and sent you to hell._ **

_That is a good reason._

Peter took a deep breath of the fresh air before getting into his truck. He wondered if William could feel it, too. He then began to wonder if he could feel anything if he wasn’t materialized outside of his host.

 ** _It’s difficult to explain. But it’s just like the shared pain,_** William answered.

_That must be hard, knowing something’s right there yet you can’t touch it yourself._

“It is weird.”

Peter glanced at William, who was finalizing his physical materialization. When the last of the green faded, he let out a relaxed sigh.

“Let’s get this show on a roll.”


	6. When Worst Comes to Worst

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A trip to Fredbear's Family Diner occurs, revealing some old memories for William. They decide to later storm the facility again to put an end to Cassidy's torturous reign. But things don't go as smoothly as planned.

The trip to Fredbear’s was a little over a half hour, and both Peter and William were silent nearly the entire time. Peter narrowed down William’s thoughts to be a bit nervous about seeing the remains of his first restaurant. To be honest, Peter was a bit worried as well.

It wasn’t until he had nearly driven over the town border when Afton told him to pull over. Though there was hardly anything other than trees in sight, it was clear that they were close.

William disappeared, urging Peter to pass through a couple trees to the left. He did so, gasping in surprise when a loud crunch sounded beneath his feet. Peter looked at what he had stepped on, picking up the old tin pop can. He had to brush off a layer of dirt to see a red-and-yellow striped pattern, along with the drink’s name. He laughed, not expecting the Exotic Beverage to be a real thing.

But it was a clue that he was on the right track. There happened to be a trail leading into a bunch of overgrowth, the dirt path cover by ferns and thorns, making it nearly impossible to find.

 ** _I forgot how long it’s really been,_** William mused. His mind was clouded with disappointment and sadness, which tugged at Peter’s own heartstrings.

He continued stepping over the brush, grunting in exasperation when his jeans caught on a blackberry bush. The thorns poked through slightly, puncturing his skin. He finally pulled himself free, now a bit more careful when moving along the old path.

Soon he had reached the wall of overgrowth, realizing that it was indeed growing over a wall. He took a step back, trying to see past all the plants to find an old, rusty sign. His vision then went blurry, courtesy of William. The virus was attempting to show him an old memory of what this place used to look like. Now the old sign was replaced by a brand new one, with two of the building’s main mascots smiling down on whoever walked by. The vision then faltered, the present now seeming a lot more gloomy than it had before.

 _It’s so different,_ Peter thought, and William made an agreeable **_Mmhmm._**

He pulled out his multi-purpose tool, flipping the knife out. He tried cutting through the ivy and thorns, almost giving up until they finally fell away, revealing a door.

The diner was indeed a trailer, though some small wooden structures were built into it, making the building a bit larger than it used to be. Peter put his hand on the door handle, having to slam his shoulder into it to make the rusty joints move. Inside the diner was nearly pitch black, causing Peter to fumble around in his pockets for his phone.

 ** _No need,_** William said. **_Give me a second._**

After a few moments of waiting, Peter’s vision went blurry once again, though this time the same area came back, only with a greenish tinge to it. Night vision.

“Amazing,” Peter whispered to himself.

He looked around, trying to see past all the vines and focus on what was underneath. A couple dining tables and chairs, topped with moldy party supplies. To the right, there was a large square object in one corner, a bunch of smaller ones scattered around it. Peter could have swore he saw a figure above it.

 ** _That was the original Prize Corner,_** William told him.

_Really? So that’s the Puppet, huh?_

Without waiting for an answer, Peter walked towards the gift box, pulling down more vines to see one of the many variations of the Marionette. Security Puppet.

“Was this Charlie’s original host?”

**_Yes. But she never liked it._ **

Peter brushed some dirt away from its white mask, revealing blue and red paint that represented tears and lipstick. The Puppet itself was unsettling in appearance, but the fact that this thing had helped give life to the animatronics was even more terrifying to think of.

So he turned to leave it alone, slightly worried that it might come to life and attack him. Instead, he crossed to the other side of the building, nearly falling face first into the stage because it was basically impossible to see through all the overgrowth. There were no performers on it, though.

 ** _Fredbear was taken to the first establishment created by Fazbear Entertainment. They used him as a model for the other animatronics,_** William explained. **_There were two Springbonnie models here, one of them taken to Jr’s. I think you know what happened to that one._**

Peter nodded.

**_The other one was in the back room just over there. I came back after I escaped Fazbear’s Fright to use it. At least it wasn’t as moldy._ **

_What about the other costume? Glitchtrap?_

**_My home. Along with all the other failed inventions._ **

Peter blinked slowly, trying to comprehend that. All of his theories were being proven true so far, all except for the timeline. But he had another question on mind.

_Were there any other animatronics here?_

**_Scrapped. Nothing remains as far as I can see._ **

_Not even a replacement for Fredbear or Springbonnie?_

A moment of silence. Then, **_I think Springbonnie had a duplicate in case the other broke down._**

Hearing that, Peter decided to attempt to open the door to the backstage. It was more difficult than the entrance, taking a couple hits to finally bust open. Afterwards, Peter felt like he had knocked his shoulder loose. While William laughed at him for his stupid solution, he realized that this room wasn’t so overgrown. A couple plants sprouting in the cracked floor here and there, but otherwise it was just old, dusty, and dirty.

Peter tripped on a spherical object, and he took the time to pick that up and observe it. It was an eye, with the richest green iris he had ever seen.

**_Springbonnie’s. Fredbear’s were blue._ **

No wonder Peter was so entranced. He laughed at himself, setting the eye on a metal shelf containing spare fuses. He spent a good fifteen minutes examining the shelves themselves, impressed by the amount of technology and how well-crafted the spare masks and costumes were. But he knew each one was dangerous to wear. Springlocks were even more dangerous when they were old and damp.

Peter screamed when someone brushed his arm. He twisted around, hand on his chest, and put on the most angry face he could muster.

“Don’t do that!” he yelled at William, who was also scared, but in a different way.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, taking a look around himself. Then he froze when his eyes landed on something in the darkness. “Peter, get a light in here.”

Peter complied, turning the flashlight on his phone on and pointing it in the direction William was looking in. He gasped when he saw it, nearly dropping his phone in surprise.

It was Springbonnie, in all her moldy yellow glory. She was crumpled on the ground into a sitting position, almost like the way Springtrap was seen in-game. It was unsettling, knowing that this one was not a physical illusion, but rather the real thing. It astonished Peter that this was all here the entire time, yet no one even bothered to look at it. What’s more is that no one remembered the events to be real. Fazbear Entertainment must have done something. Or maybe Men in Black was real, too. Hell, anything could be possible after what he had witnessed.

“Well I’ll be damned,” William muttered. “She’s still here. And mostly intact, too.”

“So, are we gonna take her, or what?” Peter asked, walking a couple paces closer to the suit.

“We’ll leave her. Besides, it’s not like you have room in that cluttered apartment of yours.”

“It _would_ look weird carrying that inside. But we, or I, can tell people that it’s just a cosplay.”

“A really accurate cosplay, at that.”

Peter sniffed in amusement, then regretted it when he inhaled a bunch of dust. He sneezed, causing William to jump slightly in surprise.

“And you’re telling _me_ not to scare _you_ ,” he said sarcastically. Peter glared at him playfully, then returned his attention to the suit. He cocked his head in curiosity.

“Don’t you _dare_ even think about putting that on,” William scolded. “With its age and how wet it is, that’s an instant death wish.”

Peter put up his hands in mock surrender. He turned his flashlight off, stuffing the phone in his pocket again. “We should go. It’s cold and dusty, and with my prone to illness, I could catch pneumonia.”

“Pneumonia’s a bit exaggerated, don’t you think?”

“You’re supposed to _know_ what I think.”

“Touché.”

Peter laughed, edging his way back out into the dining area. He paused to stare at the prize corner for a second before exiting the diner. He tripped over a root that was grown on the path, shouting as he tried to catch himself. Luckily, Afton had forced his arms out, which provided a bit of support when he did fall. Though he still ended up wit ha nasty scrape on the palm of his hand, not to mention his newly skinned knee. He cursed, mindlessly flipping off a growth of lichen as he got back on his feet.

**_You alright?_ **

_I’m fine. Not the worst I’ve ever dealt with._

He had to crouch to get under a pine tree, his hair getting caught on the sticky needles. He cursed again, swatting at the low-hanging branch in anger. He also decided to kick his truck’s tire, resulting in a stubbed toe. He screamed in rage, telling nature to fuck itself.

**_Anger issues much?_ **

_Shut up._

Peter growled, climbing into his truck. He slammed the door, running a hand through his hair before attempting to start the old vehicle. It sputtered, then coughed to a start.

“I really need to replace this damn thing,” he hissed to himself. He’d had it since highschool, which was around ten years ago.

William materialized in the passenger’s side like always, and he stared curiously at his partner. “You’re cute when you’re angry,” he commented, making Peter’s face light up like fireworks during the Fourth of July.

“What in the hell?” Peter asked, his voice a tight wheeze in attempt not to laugh.

William shrugged, looking out the window nonchalantly. Peter giggled quietly, making a u-turn before beginning the drive back into town. Life just got a whole lot more interesting.

•••••

The bright glowing orange liquid was always a sight to behold. It made one wonder just how something so simple as a burning hot liquid could bring a machine to life. Remnant was revolutionary, and it was shocking how Afton had never used it to become a millionaire, putting his name in science textbooks and on the front cover of the newspaper or a magazine. But instead, he had used it to bring the souls of the children he murdered back to life as bloodthirsty killer robots. Usually most brilliant people turned out to be insane in their own way, and they expressed it differently. This genius in particular liked to use murder as his pastime.

Erin always thought it was a waste of good knowledge. But, it also opened up some new ideas to making a situation seem more realistic than intended. He raised the jar of the liquid to his eye level, remembering the time when he had introduced the idea of using Remnant to take virtual reality to the next level. Who needed that when it could just become reality?

Each animatronic in the new game was constructed with nothing but a very precise mechanic and Remnant. What’s more, the concoction actually brought out a different personality for each character. It was almost like they were human themselves. They felt empathy and emotions just like humans; they had dreams and goals like people do; They also could be just as introverted or extroverted as well.

Not to mention as annoying.

“For the last time, _please_ sit still,” Erin demanded, forcing Molten Freddy’s arm down to the table.

“I never volunteered for this,” the bear muttered, watching Erin carefully place a syringe in one of his arm’s many wires.

“I thought you’d love to do this,” Scrap Baby said from being him, watching intently. She loved seeing him suffer.

Before Freddy could turn around and slap her eternal grin off her face, Erin pulled the needle from the wire, careful not to let any Remnant make contact with his skin. He made a promise to himself to never use this terrible excuse for a pile of scrap metal for stuff like this.

 ** _You brought that upon yourself when you asked for a volunteer from this portion of the game,_** Shadow Bonnie chimed in, adding his usual two cents that never needed to be present.

Erin tried to ignore that comment, giving a short “thank you” to Molten Freddy before asking his shared consciousness to export him back to the facility. Freddy most likely didn’t hear him, for he was too busy trying to strangle Baby for her snappy attitude. A couple of animatronics — Rockstar Foxy and Rockstar Bonnie — crowded the two, cheering them on, while the other two Rockstars watched with a concerned expression.

When Erin finally found himself in the lab again, he instantly began running through the usual list of to-do’s in order to analyze the Remnant. He’d gone through this process many times before, once with every animatronic up until Pizzeria Simulator, so it was embedded in his mind for a reason. He was just that desperate to find a match to Afton’s Remnant besides Cassidy’s. He doubted he was going to find a similar mixture of elements from Molten Freddy; the poor thing was just too stupid and didn’t have enough common sense to even come close to William’s personality.

Though he did come close when he tested Springtrap’s Remnant. Mostly because he was an iteration of William’s many appearances throughout the years. But it wasn’t close enough. But it also made Erin think that Scraptrap would be even closer than that.

When he finally ran a diagnostic, he found the same properties as always. Same common molecules found in every sample; same periodic elements; and the few unique compounds that made up the different personalities of the animatronics. But besides that, it was nothing special.

Erin made a frustrated sigh, setting the Remnant along with all the other samples on a large shelve built for test tubes. He decided that since he had gotten them, he should keep them for future references. He also noticed that once he started collecting these samples, each liquid had a slightly different shade of glow to it, ranging from the darkest blood-red to the brightest yellow-white. It was creepy, considering that all humans mostly had the same blood color. But then there was the Remnant. The only kind of life-blood Erin had studied that had a unique shade for every host.

Shadow Bonnie just then decided to appear next to him, hardly visible due to how little light there was. The Remnant was the only light source, acting like tiny lava lamps.

“We’ve still g-got the others in that area,” he offered.

Erin made a dismissive growl. He didn’t want to deal with the rabbit’s shit today. He only side-glanced at him, absent-mindedly wondering if any other shared consciousnesses were this aggravating. But then he remembered Afton and his little pet. He almost felt bad for Peter.

He stormed out of the lab, Bonnie following at his heels, and made his way to Emily’s office. It was time to get a real subject.

•••••

After many hours of driving around Hurricane and cleaning his apartment, Peter was exhausted. And it was only two in the afternoon. He found himself falling asleep on the couch, with his head rested on William’s shoulder. The virus made no attempt to move him, but rather stared ahead in deep thought. Though those thoughts were shielded well enough so that Peter wouldn’t hear them even if he searched for them.

He occasionally looked down at his partner to check if he was asleep or not, and each time their eyes met — only because Peter was staring at him the entire time. But William made no comment, but rather stared back for a couple moments, then went back to looking across the room to think.

Peter wondered wether this was going to be what every day would end up being. He didn’t mind, to be honest, but he probably wouldn’t be able to handle the constant silence. So, he improvised.

“Whatcha thinking about?” he asked, letting his hand fall into William’s.

The rabbit glanced at him before returning his attention to the wall. “Nothing concerning you,” he answered calmly.

“Nothing you think about ever concerns me. Not unless it’s about Cassidy’s undying thirst for revenge.”

Afton’s eyes widened in surprise for a split second before returning to his calm stature. “I think about you. It’s kind of difficult _not_ to think about you because of your mess of a brain bouncing around in the back of my mind.”

“At least _someone_ cares,” Peter laughed.

William echoed that laugh, then looked back at Peter again. He made a mischievous expression.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

That was slightly concerning. Peter nervously looked away, his breathing becoming shallow. He never liked it when William did that.

“Tell me, have you ever wondered why I remain like this?” William finally asked, still staring off into space.

“Like what? Your personality, or your form?”

“Physically.”

“Well, not really, no.”

Then the shield was brought down. Peter could finally see — or hear, it was hard to tell with these kinds of things — what the older was thinking about this entire time; The question on whether he could show himself as a human or not.

“That _is_ a good question,” Peter whispered to himself. William nodded curtly.

“I’ve been wondering ever since I discovered your… infatuation with me,” William explained. “Who would love a half-rotted rabbit suit that was used to lure children away so someone could murder them?”

“Well, if you put it that way, it does sound ridiculous. I guess love isn’t always based on looks.”

“Oh? Could you provide more insight on that?”

“I suppose your personality is what counts in this case. It’s also because you’ve changed so much from being a homicidal, insane rabbit that wanted to murder people to being a sarcastic pain in the ass that actually feels empathy.”

“Hmm. I’ll think on that.” William chuckled, squeezing Peter’s hand slightly. “But what if I wasn’t a ‘fursuit reject’? What would you think of me then?”

“The same as I do now. Like I said, it’s not like I based love on looks.”

“Interesting. Very interesting…”

It was quiet for another hour. Peter eventually did fall asleep. That is, until William sat up suddenly, sending him falling onto his side. He woke up in surprise, blinking a couple times to process what just happened.

William turned to look at him with a fierce expression. A lot of thoughts were running rampant through his mind at the moment, mostly centered on their safety.

 _What’s going on?_ Peter asked, still to tired to speak aloud.

 ** _We’ve been discovered,_** Afton replied shakily. **_They broke the barrier._**

_Who?_

William didn’t reply, his entire body shaking slightly with genuine fear, which was very rare to see. He was even glitching because of his heightened emotions.

_Will, who found us?_

**_Cassidy. She’s coming._ **

Peter got up slowly, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. He knew it was the truth too; nothing could scare the great and murderous William Afton more than the One You Should Not Have Killed.

He stood, taking William’s face and turning it to him. The virus blinked in surprise, but allowed him to do this.

“Calm down,” Peter said. “We’ll figure this out. You just need to calm down and think. Where should we go? Where can she not find us?”

William forced his head out of Peter’s grip, turning back around and hugging himself tightly. “Nowhere. She’ll find us no matter where we go.”

Peter frowned. He tried to think about something, and fast. Then a lightbulb sparked. “Then we’ll have to take her down for good this time,” he declared.

Afton whipped around, shock clearly visible on his face.

 ** _You’re insane,_** he thought to him, his voice still shaky.

 _Not insane, just practical,_ Peter replied.

**_She’s way too powerful. We can’t fight her alone without lasting more than two seconds._ **

_Who said we’d go alone?_

The virus considered that for a moment. His eyes scanned the floor in thought, his irises flashing green.

After a while, there was one thought on his mind that made Peter’s confidence explode.

“If we die, I’m gonna kill you,” he growled.

Peter barked a laugh. He then walked back to his side and hugged him, nuzzling his face into the soft fabric. “But really, when worst comes to worst, what’ll happen?”

“When worst comes to worse, I know one thing and one thing only.” William returned the hug, his hyperactive breathing slowed to a relaxed speed. “And that thing is that I know that I’ll still love you.”

•••••

Emily smiled grimly at the diagnostics displayed on the screen in front of her. Cassidy was happy as well, her normally angry thoughts changed to triumphant ones.

“We’ll butter my ass and call me a biscuit,” she said, crossing her arms. “You actually found a match.”

Erin shrugged behind her. “Bon told me that they had the same Remnant. It didn’t dawn on me to track both sources of that particular concoction until recently.” The shadow next to him raised his head proudly, almost as if he had discovered the solution to world hunger.

 ** _Turns out my little blood donor proved useful after all,_ **Cassidy said, amusement lining her voice.

 _Yes it did,_ Emily replied.

“I assume you can take things from here?” Erin asked, already inching his way out the door.

“Of course. Well, _I_ won’t be tracking Mr Afton. I have someone else in mind that can handle the technical stuff.”

“And I’d like to thank you for your consideration,” a woman said from Emily’s right. Hailey smirked, looking up at the mass of wires next to her.

“I can guarantee that we can handle it from here,” Ennard added. He gave his shared consciousness a smile (a real one, considering how he could reform his wires to any way he wanted).

“And I believe you,” Emily replied. She went to talk to Erin again, but found that he had already left.

**_Do you really believe he’s that loyal?_ **

Emily had sure thought on that. There were actually a number of people that she questioned where their loyalties lied. Because of William’s recent friendship with Peter, it changed some views about his personality overall.

Though if they even tried to switch sides… Well, they had a storm coming. No one could overpower Cassidy even if they were the strongest man on earth.

But Erin had always been hard-working. After all, if he really was considering siding with Afton, he wouldn’t have given the diagnostics to Emily.

And that put a smile on her face. It also gave her an idea.

“Tell all the beta testers to meet in the large group room,” she said aloud to Cassidy, who immediately complied and began reaching out to the employees.

•••••

_Alright,_ Peter thought, stroking his chin and facing the alley, _let’s run over the plan one more time._

 ** _We’ve already gone over it eleven times, Peter,_** William sighed.

_I’m just a sucker for success, that’s all._

**_Or you’re more terrified than I am about this whole thing._ **

_Am not._

**_Are too._ **

_Will you please stop acting like a two-year-old and give me the plan? Last time, I swear._

There was another aggravated sigh.

**_I’ll disable the cameras. Then we’ll walk in and avoid discovery until we find who we’re looking for._ **

_Cassidy’s gonna kill us._

**_That’s the way to think. Very inspirational._ **

_Shut up._

Peter took a deep breath, subconsciously checking his hair in his rearview mirror, then stepped out of his truck. He was careful not to make too much noise when shutting the door, for he wanted to draw as little attention to himself as he could. Then just as he began bravely walking towards that door, he tripped over his stupid shoelaces.

“Ow! Fuck…” He shook out his foot, as if that would take the pain away. “Fuck my dumb ass,” he growled to himself, bending down to tie the laces.

**_Gladly._ **

_You stay out of this._

Peter stood up straight again, continuing on his path to the end of the alley. He began to wonder if this place would end up giving him a crippling case of PTSD. He set his hand on the door’s handle, pushing it open and walking onto the elevator. William took care of the system, easily connecting to the database and allowing them to move on to the third floor. It was weird, coming back to the place he had once thought he was working at on a mission to destroy an all-powerful entity that was determined to make his life worse.

“Well, that’s one way to look at it,” William chuckled. He materialized next to Peter, back against the cool metal wall.

“Aren’t you supposed to _not_ show yourself?” Peter asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“They may be able to track my Remnant, but that doesn’t mean they can tell if I’m physical or not. Either way, they’ll know where we are,” the rabbit explained.

“Oh, joy.”

William chuckled at that remark. He looked as though he was going to say something else, but was stopped when the elevator stopped suddenly. He narrowed his eyes. “Now _that_ is not natural,” he muttered. His eyes glazed for a moment, then he glared outside the window.

“Well, ain’t that just perfect.”

Peter frowned in confusion, following his partner’s gaze. He then resisted the urge to cry out in terror. Just outside the glass, two — no, three, four… a _lot —_ of eyes glared back at them, accompanied by a pure white mask. Each eye was a different color, blinking at irregular intervals. They were all stuffed in between hundreds of wires, formed into a makeshift endoskeleton. Peter self-consciously eyed the ceiling, where he was dismayed to find that the fan had stopped spinning.

“Don’t move,” William growled through a strained voice. Peter glanced at him, then back at Ennard, and to the fan again. If that thing decided to pay them an up-close and personal visit, it had a clear path through that big empty space.

Then Ennard caught on to Peter’s attention, switching its own gaze to the fan. It made what looked like an evil smirk, then began climbing upwards.

“Way to go,” Afton hissed. But the look on his face was anything but loathing. It was _joyful_.

“Do you _want_ us to die—“ Peter began, but his mouth was covered by William’s hand. He coughed on the fur, spitting the hair out before he swallowed it. He shoved William’s hand away, but he was distracted by a thumping sound on the ceiling before he could make any move to fight back.

No, not random thumping. Footsteps. Loud, metallic, huge footsteps.

Then Ennard’s head poked out from the rim of the circular hole in the ceiling, one hand reaching in between the blades of the fan. That was when William made a maniacal giggle. Peter stared at him with a concerned expression, wondering what to be worried about at the moment.

But when Ennard began climbing inside, the unexpected happened. William’s eyes glowed pure lime green, then the fan began spinning at an impossible speed, shredding the animatronic inside. There was a mechanical screech of pain, but it was cut off abruptly. Glowing red liquid splashed down onto the floor, and Afton pushed Peter away before any of it could touch him.

“Is that Remnant?” Peter asked, his mouth going on autopilot. His words had come out before he decided they should.

“Yes. Very bad to touch. Big no-no,” William replied, taking a step back as well.

The liquid itself was sizzling with unnatural heat, glowing the color of the hottest magma. But it wasn’t melting through the floor.

“It only melts living flesh. Which is why it’s made for robots,” William explained, clearly reading Peter’s mind.

“I wish you would stop doing that,” the younger growled, watching as a large chunk of wire fell to the floor, splashing in a pool of its own blood.

“Like I’ve said before, it’s impossible not to.”

If he could, Afton would have made a smug grin, which would have made Peter smack the look off his face. This was _not_ the moment to be messing around.

But one question tugged at the back of his mind as the elevator began moving again. “What about its host?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. They won’t die. It only works that way if the host dies first. Have you never seen _Dragonheart_?”

“No. But please, explain.”

So, William told him of the movie, where men would share a heart with a dragon. If the man died, the dragon would, too. But it wasn’t the other way around. William was about to go on about the fourth movie when they finally reached their destination. He narrowed his eyes in disappointment, making a mental note to continue when they were done with this whole debacle.

If _we survive._

**_Once again, how inspirational._ **

Peter poked his head outside the doors, looking both ways to make sure no one was nearby. When he saw that it was clear, he stepped out of the elevator, taking no time to hesitate when making his way to where his “office” used to be. He walked faster when it came in sight.

William was about to recite yet another dead meme before Peter warned him not to. This earned him a disappointed moan from his shared consciousness.

He was nearly five feet from the door when he heard footsteps. Two pairs; one human, the other metallic.

Um. What?!

Peter choked back on a yelp when William pushed him against the wall that was shrouded in shadow. The only thing that shone were his brilliant purple eyes, which had the expression of _say-anything-and-either-I’ll-kill-you-or-they-will_. Peter nodded slowly, looking past William and in the direction of the sound. His eyes widened when he saw an orange light emitted onto the wall, followed by a familiar shadow of an animatronic with an elongated, bare endoskeleton snout tipped with sharp teeth, its ears pointed at the ends. It couldn’t be. That would be a major fire hazard to have around.

But of course, any Jack-o-Lantern animatronic would be.

Grim Foxy lumbered into view, a tall female trailing behind him. The fox’s fire that was burning from his chest and head was flaming fiercely, giving off a brighter light than before.

Wait.

Peter looked back at William, who shared his fearful expression. Light meant they could be discovered. Discovery meant danger. Danger meant death.

**_Keep your terrified thoughts dialed down a couple notches, will you?_ **

Peter nodded vigorously, staring at Grim Foxy once more. He was coming closer. The young man took one look at that sickle for a hook and gulped, rubbing his throat and imagining the blade tearing off his head. Even the teeth and claws posed almost as much of a threat with that.

The fox’s host on the other hand seemed harmless. She was around Peter’s age, as well as skinnier than normal. She looked as though she hadn’t eaten or slept in days. Her long, brown hair flowed over her shoulders in a messy way, looking like it hadn’t been brushed the same amount of time she hadn’t slept. Her hazel eyes were half-closed and tired, large dark bags under her eyes.

Foxy looked back at her for a moment, then the woman’s face went still. She stopped, allowing the fox to walk on. He was getting _really_ close.

 ** _Here’s the plan,_** William thought suddenly, snapping Peter back to reality, **_I’ll distract them, and you run._**

_What if they—_

**_If you run, you’ll survive. If I don’t come back in around five minutes, go back home._ **

Peter stared into Afton’s eyes, his heart dropping in his stomach like lead. He didn’t even want to think about loosing him.

**_Peter. Promise me you’ll run._ **

He shook his head, tears forcing their way out of the dam. He choked back a sob.

_No. I can’t leave you._

**_You have to._ **

Peter sniffed, closing his eyes and sobbing quietly.

**_Hey. I’ve always found a way to come back. Don’t worry about me._ **

Peter didn’t even care if he was now bathed in Grim Foxy’s firelight. He didn’t care that there were now two people staring at him. He kept staring at William, taking the virus’s head in his hands. He leaned forwards, planting a soft kiss on his forehead. William closed his eyes, putting his own hands on Peter’s wrists and pulling them away.

“Go,” he whispered, pushing Peter away lightly. He then turned around to face the animatronic looming behind him, sending a shockwave of purple energy out. The blast knocked both Foxy and his host of their feet, giving the other two time to give one last look at each other before Peter bolted away down the hall, tears still falling.

He was too scared to look back. He was too scared to see what had made William scream in pain (which made himscream in pain as well). He was too scared to face the fact that he’d never see the man he loved ever again. Peter reached the elevator again, about to enter until his hand hovered over the big, red, and obvious button. He was also too scared to leave him behind.

So he turned back around, charging back into the battle scene. He screamed out a war cry, barreling into the woman that was Foxy’s host. She cried out in surprise, falling backwards. Her scream made Foxy turn from his victim, a low snarl leaving his throat. The animatronic then began stepping towards Peter, hook grinding against the floor. The sound was like nails to a chalkboard, but it didn’t stop Peter from socking the woman in the face. The blow had also affected Foxy, who howled in anguish, clutching the side of his face with his hand. The robot stumbled, too occupied with its own wound to help his host.

“Wait!” the woman shouted. She struck out her hands to defend herself from another blow from Peter. “Please!”

Peter growled. “Why? So you can kill me, too?”

The woman frowned, a mix of terror and regret put into it. She looked over at Foxy, who was back on his mission to destroy the rabbit before him. It was only then when Peter saw the damage.

William was in a huddled heap on the floor, white hot Remnant leaking in massive amounts from a huge gash in his chest. There were also claw marks scored across his left eye, Remnant spotting up there as well. The virus wasn’t even blinking, his eyes remaining frozen open in a wide, horrified stare into nothingness. Even the brilliant lavender mixed with maroon and amethyst dulled into a glazed death.

Peter couldn’t help but howl in sorrow. It was like a part of him had been torn out, thrown onto the floor, stomped on, then ripped into tiny bits. He got off of the girl, catching himself before he decided to ram past Grim Foxy and to William’s side. He found himself blocked from both sides, unable to go anywhere.

He had just lost the love of his life, and he was going to die as well. How perfect of a day to live.

So, he gave up, his legs buckling from underneath him, allowing him to kneel on the ground and cry his eyes out. He didn’t even realize that both Foxy and his host had backed off; either too guilty or too afraid of what this strange man might do to them out of revenge.

Peter knew he would be facing Cassidy any moment now. And he would give her a piece of his mind. If he died, he wouldn’t care. He honestly didn’t care what happened to him now. It wasn’t like he had anything else to live for, anyways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha I killed him  
> I'm not crying, you are ;-;


	7. I Always Come Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As always, William comes back to life for some odd unexplainable reason, but not without acting like he's high off of weed for a while. They gain some unlikely allies. After another narrow escape from Cassidy, things go downhill once again.

Peter had the sudden urge to wake up. But he didn’t even realize he was asleep in the first place. Maybe it was linked to why the back of his head ached so much. He also remembered what situation he was in, and how dangerous it would be to _not_ play dead. So, he stilled himself, hardly breathing.

“Interesting,” a familiar voice mused. Peter didn’t have to open his eyes to know that it was Shadow Bonnie.

“Leave him be. You’ll scare him half to death.”

That was Erin. No doubt about it. He had that same bored tone to his voice, as if nothing in the world could surprise him.

There was a _harrumph_ of dismissal, then the sound of faded footsteps, then the rustle of fabric. Peter’s mind whirled, wondering how the hell he ended up here instead of in what could be Cassidy’s renowned torture chamber. Maybe this _was_ his torture.

“Have you run any diagnostics yet?” Erin said suddenly, almost making Peter jump.

“Running them right now,” the rabbit replied. “I’m finding something strange in his Remnant though; There’s high concentrated levels of human blood. I’ve never seen so much, even in Cassidy’s.”

“Hmm,” was Erin’s only comment to that.

Peter had a feeling that they were studying William’s dead body. The very thought of that made his skin crawl and his blood boil. It was disgusting and wrong, not to mention heart-wrenching, knowing who it was.

“Do you think it’ll work?”

“Hell, we’ve been working on this formula for a year. Of course it’s going to work.”

There was a metal clang, then the sound of a tin box opening. Peter felt someone walk next to him, and then crouch down to his level.

“You know, you’re not a very good faker,” Erin laughed.

Peter slowly opened his eyes, trying not to move any more than that. “How’d you know?”

“Bon here can read minds.” Erin tilted his head in the glitch’s direction, acknowledging his existence for once.

Peter still didn’t move or make a reply. He looked around the room, which resembled a makeshift lab. A huge shelf with nearly a hundred Remnant extractions laid in one side of the room, while on all other walls rested counters and other lab equipment. But it was the table in the center of the room that Peter couldn’t pry his eyes from.

He wanted to walk over there and kick Shadow Bonnie’s ass for even touching William’s body.

“Why do you think we’re going to hurt you? We’re on your side,” Erin said.

“Like I’ll ever believe that. You tried to kill us two days ago,” Peter argued. He decided to sit up a little to give his back some rest. Ow.

“We may have changed our minds about wanting to brutally murder someone under an overgrown teddy bear’s orders.” Erin laughed at his own joke. “We’re going to help you.”

“How? Cassidy will have all our asses if we try anything.”

“Oh, Cassidy already knows you’re here. She knows William is dead, too. She’s entrusted me with questioning you and analyzing William’s Remnant. But, I’m going to add my own flair to that initial plan.”

Erin gestured for Bonnie to hand him the object he had got out of that box from before. As soon as he had it in his hands, he held it close to Peter’s vision.

“This is a concoction of Remnant that’s designed to bring people back from the dead.”

“But weren’t they already—“

“MEANING,” Erin interrupted, “that we can bring back Ennard.”

“Oh.”

“Poor Hailey’s in shock right now. It was painful enough to feel like your body was getting sliced up into a thousand bits; losing the shared consciousness is almost as bad as going through the loss of a loved one.”

“Yeah. I noticed,” Peter muttered. He swallowed a hard lump in his throat, trying not to think about Afton.

“But that’s not the only reason we have this stuff out right now. Our first test subject is going to be Pedo-Hare over there,” Erin whispered, as though only he and Peter were the only ones that could know this.

Peter’s eyes widened in hope. But before he could say anything to that, Erin interrupted him yet again.

“ _But_ it might not work. I’ve mixed it with a lot of adrenaline, so it might make him a bit… hyperactive _if_ he wakes up again,” he explained.

“Anything to bring him back.”

Erin raised an eyebrow. He handed the vial of glowing blue liquid back to Shadow Bonnie, who went straight to extracting it with a syringe. Erin then returned his gaze to Peter. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he laughed.

That was when Bonnie injected the liquid into William’s wrist. Peter had no idea what he would be dealing within a matter of moments.

William instantly shot up from his peaceful death, eyes wide and mixed with terror and surprise. He was hyperventilating, scratching at his wrist like someone who had autism. He looked around, narrowing his eyes at Shadow Bonnie. But when his eyes landed on Peter, he gave the closest thing to a smile he could offer.

“Well, I guess that eternal punishment will just have to wait,” he said, just as Peter shot up (much to his back’s dismay) and bolted over to envelop the virus in a gigantic bear hug.

“I thought you were gone forever,” he whimpered.

“Kid, have you learned nothing?” William scolded playfully. “I _always_ come back.”

Peter laughed pitifully at that. It was another old joke, but one to be remembered after this occasion.

After a few moments, Erin cleared his throat to gather their attention.

“I believe a ‘thank-you’ is required,” he boasted, raising his chin in mocking triumph.

“Fuck you,” William hissed quietly. That made Peter burst out laughing harder than before. “It feels like I could run a marathon right now.”

“Just give it few minutes.”

Peter wondered what that was supposed to mean. He gave William a concerned glance, suddenly expecting the rabbit to spontaneously combust any second.

“Are you thirsty? Hungry?” Erin offered. “We have a big fight ahead of us; might as well gain that energy while you can.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Peter watched Erin walk out of the lab, leaving him and the two rabbits behind. It was quiet for a long time, and it wasn’t until Peter had finally gotten comfortable sitting on the counter that William suddenly shouted in glee. It was enough to send Peter falling off the counter in surprise, and for Shadow Bonnie to glitch out for a second.

“I HAVE A PLAN!” he decreed. He suddenly began sending a mess of loud, excited thoughts to Peter’s mind — enough to give him an instant migraine. “It sounds like a great plan it’ll work so well IT’S AWESOME LET’S DO IT.”

Peter rubbed his temples, trying to comprehend the gibberish inside his brain at the moment. He side-glanced Shadow Bonnie, who was bent over laughing his ass off.

“Is this supposed to happen?” Peter asked him, and Bonnie nodded in between gasps of air.

“I could take her on right now,” William continued. “She’d be on the ground before she even knows what hit her. I’ll be the hero and everyone will love me and not think I’m evil and OH MY GOD WHY IS EVERYTHING SO BLUE?!”

Peter began to laugh now. He had no clue what was going on, but he loved it to bits. Now Shadow Bonnie was even on the ground, still laughing.

“I _hate_ blue. Purple’s a SO MUCH better color. Can we change this? Is it permanent? I hope it’s not permanent because it would suck and then I would hate living, not to mention the fact that I’m TERRIBLY dizzy right now.” William continued rambling on, complaining about colors, which made him think of how the stage lights back at Jr’s never worked, which made him think about how _excruciatingly hard_ it was to build the animatronics from scratch without help. A bunch more topics were discussed, but they all began to merge together into an incomprehensible rambling.

Finally the moment came when Erin returned with two coffee mugs, but the scene he walked into nearly made him drop them. He looked like he was trying hard not to laugh as well, shutting the door behind him carefully.

“When did the adrenaline kick in?” he asked, handing one mug to Peter.

“Oh, about ten minutes ago,” he answered plainly. William had paused his protests about whatever the hell he was protesting about to give Erin a weird look. Erin stared right back at him, mirroring the same expression.

“I don’t like you,” William hissed. Erin shrugged, letting the statement go in one ear and out the other without allowing his brain to process it.

“Beggars can’t be choosers,” he replied, turning his back to the virus. He beckoned for Shadow Bonnie to speak to him, which they did, under hushed voices and silent, angry/judgmental expressions.

Though William had finally gone silent, he was still fidgeting and eyeing every spot in the room with an overly curious gaze. Peter expected him to jump up and begin demanding to know what each instrument was and how it worked. It was only when he was about to ask why there was so much Remnant when Erin and Shadow Bonnie finally turned back to them. Erin followed William’s gaze and his eyes widened in concern.

“Don’t even _think_ about touching those,” he threatened, causing William to snap his attention own to his hands, which were _im_ patiently held together at his lap. Peter sniggered.

“Should we wait for it to wear off, or..?” he asked.

“Nah. Might as well throw him in a room with Cassidy while he’s hyperactive and stronger than normal than when he’s exhausted and weak after it _eventually_ wears off,” Erin explained. “Waiting would take from an hour to a day.”

“Damn.”

William was now scratching at his wrist again, seemingly paranoid about everything at the moment. He gave Peter a pleading look, almost like he was asking for _something_ to do. Though the younger had no clue as to how to help him out.

“Emily will be here any minute,” Shadow Bonnie announced. “So I suggest that you two hide.”

“How, exactly?” Peter asked. “There’s nowhere _to_ hide, especially with this overgrown bunny Peep over here.”

William scoffed and glared at his partner, a hand placed on his heart. “How dare you? I’m perfectly handsome, mind you. I’m anything BUT overgrown. I’m just a bit taller than the average human being. Of course, even more so if you count the ears but who counts the ears because THAT’S STUPID.”

“Way to go; You got him started again,” Erin muttered, taking a sip from his coffee. “But, Peter, William is perfectly capable of making you two invisible for a short period of time. But, it would be useful to hide in that closet over there.” He jabbed his thumb to the right, and Peter looked in that direction to find a door blocked off by a couple heavy crates.

“Can you get us past that?” he asked William, who nodded vigorously.

“Easy as pie. Although, making pie is anything but easy. It’s rather hard to do, and requires at least a couple months in experience in baking. Even then, it’s easy to turn your upside down cake literally upside down,” he rambled. Peter sighed, rolling his eyes.

“I’m not sure I can get him to shut up for long enough.”

“Oh, you’ll figure it out,” Erin said. He winked at Peter.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, nothing.”

Peter’s face turned red. He tried to push that comment out of his head as William eagerly grabbed a hold of his arm.

“Don’t move, or you might be torn to bits,” he said suddenly, his body glitching out already.

"Wait, _what?!_ ”

Suddenly everything went green, and Peter’s stomach felt like it had been flipped. Seconds later, he found himself in a dark, enclosed area. The only light was the purple glow from William’s eyes, which were wide open and staring intently at Peter’s face.

“What the fuck was that?!” he whisper-shouted, clutching his aching stomach.

“Teleportation,” William answered quickly. “We’ll probably be doing it a lot, so you might as well get used to it. Please don’t puke on me. It’s really hard to clean that stuff out of this fabric. I know, because it was very difficult to clean out the blood from—“

“Shhhh!”

“Sorry. Shutting up now.”

Silence. Blissful, beautiful silence. Peter sighed contently, absent-mindedly leaning comfortably against William. The fabric was just too soft to pass up, feeling like the softest of silk. It surprisingly smelled good for being so old, too.

William placed a hand on his back, pulling Peter into a protective hug. He angled his ears to the door, catching a sound that Peter couldn’t hear. Then the moment came when he heard a door open, followed by muted talking. It must be Emily.

Erin then began to speak, but Emily cut him off with an even angrier tone. William narrowed his eyes, his heart audible as Peter laid his head against his chest. Something bad was happening.

Then there was a scream, the sound of heavy metal flying everywhere. Peter instinctively clutched tighter to William at the noise, terrified by the agonized screams outside the door. But it wasn’t just Erin. Shadow Bonnie was screaming as well.

_What’s going on?_

**_Cassidy’s torturing Shadow Bonnie. She’s trying to get Erin to talk. A terrible plan in my opinion, since the poor man will be too pained to speak. I would much rather hold a sharp knife to his throat; that usually does the trick for me._ **

_For God’s sake,_ please _be quiet!_

**_Sorry. Again._ **

More screams, then silence. There was Erin talking, then footsteps. They were soft, but heavier than a human’s. It must be Cassidy. Then there was a shadow from under the door, the sight of it making Peter and William freeze and stop breathing.

Long, torturous minutes passed until Cassidy finally walked away from the door. Peter let go of the breath he was holding, but still keeping the air reaching his lungs to a minimum. William tightened his grip on his shirt, a whole fistful of the fabric that nearly was enough to tighten the collar, slightly suppressing Peter’s already scarce breaths.

More talking, then another moment of silence. Cassidy and Emily finally left, but William had convinced Peter to remain in the closet until he was sure the coast was clear.

“Alright,” he finally said, “let’s go before I suffocate.”

The world went green again, then Peter found himself back in the lab, outside the closet. Though the sight wasn’t all that pretty. Erin was standing over Shadow Bonnie, who was on the ground and leaking white Remnant from where his chest would be (considering that it was nearly impossible to tell with him being a shadow and all). Erin was sweating, too, and he hardly even acknowledged William and Peter’s presence.

Before any of them could ask what happened, Erin spoke aloud. “She killed him,” he whispered. “Took out his artificial heart.” He turned to look at the two, sorrow and pain clearly evident. “You have no idea how it feels, having your heart ripped out and left to rot even though it really isn’t. The amount of shock the host has to go through after losing their shared consciousness… It’s enough to force them into an insane asylum.”

Now that he looked closer, Peter could also see the ghost of Shadow Bonnie’s Remnant on his chest in the exact same spot. It was there, but not there at the same time. Was that what it looked like when William was killed? The very thought of it gave Peter a cold sweat.

“I’m sorry,” Peter began, but Erin’s gaze turned hard, causing him to stop mid-sentence.

“It wasn’t you. It was _her. She_ killed him, not you.” He then flicked his eyes to William, who was looking down at the ground and scratching his wrist again. “Which is why I’m going to help you get rid of her once and for all.”

Peter blinked in surprise. He was kind of expecting it, but not like this.

Erin continued, “I know a lot of things that you don’t about the powers that come with being a shared consciousness; especially with an animatronic that isn’t physical or isn’t an animatronic at all. Supernatural powers, if that’s what you want to call it.”

“Like what?” William chimed in, still spastic as ever. “Tell me tell me tell me TELL ME.”

Peter subconsciously rolled his eyes.

“Maybe if you keep quiet for long enough, I will tell you!” Erin snapped.

William froze his scratching, widening his eyes a bit. Peter sniffed in amusement. Erin was the only person besides himself that he knew could shut the almighty Glitchtrap up.

“Now _please_ , sit down. We have a lot to go through.”

They waited until midnight to strike. It was really cliché once you thought about it. Peter nearly laughed when he heard that part of the plan, but he bit his tongue and continued to listen to Erin’s ideas.

Overall, the new plan sounded great. Since William was so excited to get his hands on something he could kill after all these years (maybe or maybe not also because of the adrenaline rush) he would be the one to distract Cassidy with his rantings and keep the spirit on her feet when trying to avoid his random, _not_ thought-out attacks.

Peter was entrusted with the job of keeping Emily busy, which might end up in him having to use the switchblade he kept in his back pocket. He knew he wasn’t the kind of person to kill anyone, but he also knew that is was necessary for his own survival. Plus, it was better now that he knew more painless ways to end someone’s life with a knife, thanks to the random thoughts bouncing around in William’s mind when the virus didn’t think he was paying attention.

Erin was the one that was going to do a manual restart of the game, which would destroy any animatronic that had merged with someone. It was a last chance kind of option, since getting rid of the animatronics also meant getting rid of William. But besides that, he was to keep an eye on the cameras and track everyone’s movements. This was crucial if the other two weren’t expecting to get caught.

Now, Peter had let William take over as they made their way to find Cassidy. Peter couldn’t help but recite a couple of songs he’d heard, which earned William’s attention pretty quickly.

**_I can’t focus with your little Mii Chanel tribute._ **

_Sorry._

To his amazement, William actually began humming along.

 ** _Now look what you made me do,_** the virus grouched.

_Then change the subject, dimwit._

A moment of thoughtful silence, then, **_Why did the chicken cross the road?_**

_I dunno._

**_To get to the idiot’s house._ **

_Okay?_

**_Knock knock._ **

_Who’s there?_

**_The chicken._ **

Peter laughed. _This is the comedy police, the joke’s too funny!_

**_I’m not going back to jail!_ **

They giggled some more, which was probably going to look weird to Erin, who was supposedly watching them at the moment. Then, as if on cue, his voice rang out in the earpiece he had given both Peter and William.

_“Focus, will you?”_

“Okay, boomer.”

 _That_ made Peter wheeze with laughter. William sniggered as well, scratching his wrist again.

 _What is your obsession with your damn wrist?_ Peter asked.

**_Just itches._ **

Now that he looked, Peter could see a prickle of blue liquid mixed with white Remnant in the same spot Shadow Bonnie had induced the adrenaline in his blood flow. It was slightly concerning, to say the least, but it didn’t look that bad compared to the wound William had suffered only hours ago. The blue liquid also seemed to glow phosphorescently, like a jellyfish would in the depths of the ocean. It was beautiful in a way, but oddly creepy.

 ** _Nevermind. It actually_ really _hurts,_** William hissed. Just as he said it, he stopped in his tracks and began scratching even harder.

 _Erin should know what to do,_ Peter offered.

 ** _I don’t need help from that schizophrenic bastard,_** William replied, but his eyes fluttered shut in pain anyways.

 _You_ do _need help, Will. I don’t need you passing out on me while you’re still in control. I don’t know if I’ll be able to change back myself._

**_I’ll be… fine…_ **

He definitely _wasn’t_ fine. The virus took one more wobbly step, then fell forwards onto the floor, unconscious.

_Aw, hell._

Peter had no clue what to do. After all Erin had told him about taking control under emergencies, he suddenly had forgotten it. He could hear the mechanic’s voice now.

_“William? Peter? What happened?”_

He couldn’t reply.

_“Answer me, dammit! What happened?”_

“Well, well, well.”

Now that was unsettling. Peter couldn’t see who it was, but he knew exactly who it was anyways because of the voice.

“Looks like my little plan worked,” Emily cooed. “Maybe Cassidy needs to put more faith in me after all."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> damn I'm so mean to these poor beans


	8. Forever Intertwined

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end is near, and it's unclear who the one that comes out on top will be. Cassidy may be strong, but there's an even stronger force than her own anger.

Heroes were brave. Strong. They always knew what to say and when to say it, and they were at the right place at the right time. Heroes were all of those things.

And Peter was none of them.

As he rested in a vast void of darkness, he had the chance to reminisce about all of this. He knew that the only thing that made him different from other random people was his “relationship” with the fictional William Afton. But then again, Afton wasn’t fictional at all now. At least, not anymore.

It was scary. Peter had known this game franchise for most of his life. He lived for the lore and the secrets, but now he _was_ the lore. He was living the very thing he both feared and loved at the same time. He had himself caught between reality and fiction, not knowing which was which anymore. An entire new world that was hidden so well that only few knew that it actually existed, going on in a private war with a murderer and his victim.

Peter never expected he would be on the antagonist’s side. He supposed that was the scary part about the whole thing. That, and the fact that he had fallen in love with his new shared consciousness. That just made the situation so much worse. Losing William would make Peter’s life much more worse than it had been before, yet the thought of fighting also frightened him. He wasn’t built for this kind of stuff. He just wasn’t the hero everyone needed.

He doubted that any inch of him would be brave enough to stand up to the very spirit that had been the center of the entire franchise the entire time; the One Who You Should Not Have Killed was the most powerful being in the series. Hell, she could both give life and eternal punishment at the same time.

Cassidy was much different from William in many ways. She was always considered the “good guy” alongside Michael, giving the evildoer the punishment he deserved. But now that Peter was living the battle, he was now seeing it in a whole new perspective.

He knew how William felt. He knew that the virus was sorry for his mistakes, and how he wanted so desperately to fix them. He saw that he had in fact changed from his rock-bottom sanity in the ’80’s. He now saw that the poor man was just itching for a way to break free from going into madness, to break free from the ongoing battle and live a normal life again. Peter was his key to that normal life.

And yet, he wasn’t at the same time.

 _I’m the one keeping him anchored,_ Peter had thought. _I’m the one keeping him from going insane, yet I’m also going to be the one to prevent him from being free._

Freedom was different in everyone’s perspective. But in this case, Peter felt like he was forcing William to stay within the boundaries of the chains that was his mind. It made Peter wonder if there was in fact a way for William to ever go off on his own again. Then again, he was afraid of losing William in particular.

He wished that he had never gotten himself dragged into this mess. Why couldn’t it be something like _real_ game development? He never expected a simple job interview to turn into this.

He wondered how William felt about this whole thing as well.

~*^*~

Fear. Concern. Downright confusion. Regret.

All of the above matched what Afton was feeling right now. Whatever he had been induced with must be messing with his mind. He’d never felt this way; Groggy and feeling hungover, while being completely alert and thoughtful at the same time. And in addition, all of these thoughts were for Peter’s safety.

Peter. Peter, Peter, Peter. It was all he thought about anymore. It just wasn’t natural. He never even felt this way about his own wife, who he had loved to bits. But Peter was very different than her.

For one thing, he was male. Of course, bisexuality was somewhat of a problem from where William came from. But now, in the present, it wasn’t that much of an issue. Sure, it made some heads turn, but it wasn’t abnormal enough to make one second-guess anything.

Secondly, Peter was cultured in his own way. Sure, he wasn’t street-smart, but he was… not book-smart (at least not _that_ book-smart). Perhaps gaming-smart? Was that even a term? Who knew nowadays? William guessed it was a good thing, for Peter had known almost more than what William knew about himself. Which was creepy. In a way.

Thirdly, Peter was a nobody. Yet he was somebody. At least to very few he was. To the naked eye, the man was just another random Joe that was overly obsessed with horror games. But underneath — especially since William was inside his mind — he was a lot more thoughtful about his surroundings. He had separated himself so much from other people that he hardly even seemed like a normal person anymore. And that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, either. It made him special.

Lastly, Peter had an undying passion of empathy and compassion, especially when it came to people he knew. It seemed like the opposite of William’s personality, but as the old saying goes, “opposites attract”. When Peter had felt wrong for thinking about killing Emily, or when he felt sad for Erin when Shadow Bonnie died, it had opened William’s eyes to see how others would react to his actions. One wrong move, and the worst could happen. But saying the right thing could make everything better in the future.

In conclusion, William had decided that he did indeed learn a lot from Peter from the few days he’d spent with him. He was in fact in an extremely powerful love interest with the man, and it didn’t concern him in the least anymore. It made him regret what he had decided he was going to do in order to save him.

Oh, God. Don’t think about that. _Don’t think about how painful it will be for him. Don’t think about the separation. Don’t think, don’t think, don’t think…_

But no matter how hard he tried, his heart felt like it was wrapped in coils from barbed wire. He would never forgive himself for going through with this plan. But, if it could guarantee that Peter lived, then he was all for it.

Now, just to wake up…

~*^*~

_Please don’t leave me. Please wake up. Don’t abandon me now, not after what we’ve gone through…_

Peter could only see what William could see at the time, so he was still swathed in darkness. In the past hour, Emily had somewhat successfully dragged William’s limp, unconscious body to a secluded area.

It was funny, hearing her exhausted and labored breaths as she attempted to lift William over her back. She eventually gave up and dragged him instead. When she stopped moving him, Peter knew that this was where he was going to die. The sound of a door shutting and the lock clicking told him that it might also be possible that no one would discover his dead body.

Then, after about an hour, William’s thoughts stirred in a confused and groggy flurry.

 ** _I feel like I’ve died and come back again,_** he muttered weakly. **_Each time it’s worse._**

_Well, I know for a fact that you didn’t die. You were just unconscious for a while._

**_Ah. That’s also a problem._ **

A moment of silence. Then Peter asked, _Do you mind giving me my body back?_

**_What? Oh, that. Well, here’s the thing; My mind is only running on two braincells right now, so I’m not exactly sturdy enough to do something like that. I mean, unless you_ want _to get severed in half—_**

_No thank you. But can you at least open your eyes so I can see?_

**_That depends. Where are we?_ **

_No clue._

**_That’s just dandy._ **

But the virus opened his eyes nonetheless. But it didn’t exactly help. The room they were in was dark enough to be pitch black, but not quite. A red light faded in and out of existence, which probably meant that this room contained some kind of machinery. Once in a while, faint eerie whispering could be heard.

**_I think I know where we are._ **

_Where?_

In demonstration, William summoned a purple-green flame around his hand to light up the room. Immediately after conjuring, what seemed like a million different colored orbs of light appeared and began darting around the room. Some were red, some blue, green, and rarely some gold. In the midst of them all, small black cloud-like particles floated in circles around the brighter ones, as if they were protecting them.

_Is that..?_

**_Raw Remnant. And a lot of it, to be precise._ **

The whispering turned into quiet screaming, and the black particles began moving in frenzied loops. Colorful cussing from William told Peter that this was a bad thing.

**_He’s here._ **

_Who? Shadow Bonnie was the one that manifested from the dark Remnant. He’s gone now, so—_

**_What other character would be able to take his place?_ **

_Oh._

A faint black outline of Withered Freddy formed in the center of the light, and the picture slowly filled in with more black as the dark Remnant collected together. Only a few bits of light remained in the shadowy mass; two large eyes and glowing teeth.

“Aw, hell,” William growled. He heaved to his feet, laughing nervously. “Tyler, you persistent bastard. I guess the fire surpassed you as well?”

Shadow Freddy cocked his head in confusion. His only reply was a jumbled mess of staticky, mixed, and warped speech. It as much like the sound of Golden Freddy’s growls in FNaF 1, now that Peter thought about it. He had no clue how his brain did that to him during situations of intense fear.

“It’s too bad Jeremy was finally defeated. He did seem like he was your only friend in this hellhole,” William went on.

Shadow Freddy’s speech became angrier.

_Will, I think you’re making him pissed._

**_He’s always pissed,_** the older argued.

The shadow made an inhuman screech, seemingly scaring the rest of the Remnant away, leaving the three in darkness. The only light was from the two animatronics’ glowing eyes.

Instinctively, William reached for the door handle. But it was still locked. While he cursed some more, Shadow Freddy took the opportunity to send a pulse of white energy that shoved William into the wall.

“Yep. I see the similarity between you and Bonnie,” he growled before pushing off the cold steel. He then turned back around to look at Freddy, who was getting ready to do it again. William’s brain made a tiny pop of fear before he added, “You both like to toss me around before getting to business.

Shadow Freddy’s movements froze. The white energy collecting around his fist faded away. He narrowed his eyes, taking a step back. William’s comment had obviously affected him emotionally.

“Nev-ver liked h-him…”

“Really? You two were always together.”

Shadow Freddy shook his head thoroughly. “Al-lways hate-ed him.”

_Now you’re gonna make him cry._

**_Do you want to live or not?_ **

“I’ll tell you what; You let us go, and I’ll never get in your way ever again,” William bargained.

“No. The O-one you sho-ould n-n-not have kille-ed gave their-r orders.”

“Well, that’s a bummer.”

 _Stop acting like a two-year-old and move your ass before we get pounded!_ Peter howled.

**_I’m trying my best, dimwit!_ **

Shadow Freddy closed his fist, sparks of energy zapping away. At the same time, William’s breathing slowed tremendously. Peter subconsciously reminded himself to listen to Erin the next time he saw him. _If_ he saw him again. If he had paid attention, he probably could have been helping William destroy this overgrown blackberry. If anything, he could have taken over by now.

William cussed again, putting a hand to his chest. He gave Shadow Freddy the bird, then the world went green. Seconds later, Peter could see that the virus had attempted to teleport out of the room, but had obviously failed. They were now in a somewhat larger room, though it was empty. At least it wasn’t dark. The reason that William had failed was because they weren’t alone.

“You can’t escape your fate, Afton,” Emily hissed. “You’ve already denied Lucifer’s open arms four times over — but not a fifth. This time, you’re dying for good.

William made a barking laugh. Peter could tell it was forced. “What makes you think that?” he asked, hostility lining his voice.

“Oh, I don’t think so. I _know_ so.”

William swiveled around to face Cassidy. Although her suit was hardly visible in the dim lighting, the hat and bowtie glowed a fierce purple. William’s posture wilted, but he made no other movement to show that he was in fact terrified for his life.

Cassidy placed a hand on his head (William too scared to move a muscle) and made a quick movement, grasping both ears and pulling William off the ground. The virus howled in anguish, and his brain was in such a mess that it drove Peter’s own mind to the brink of consciousness. It was then that William screamed louder, and Peter felt himself being torn in half. But nothing was happening. Suddenly Peter knew what was going on.

He found himself in front of Cassidy after opening his eyes again, and he could feel his own mind take over again. But William’s mind was gone.

“You… You killed him!” Peter screamed. He took a step back, but Emily stopped him from going further.

“Oh, don’t worry your pretty little head off,” Cassidy laughed. “He’s still around.”

She opened the hand she had used to destroy William with and opened it, letting a ball of purple Remnant float freely above her palm. It pulsed and glistened, beginning to move away before a particle of dark Remnant appeared around it.

“Not gone, but trapped,” Cassidy added.

Peter was at a loss of words. He gaped at the orb of light, trying to comprehend what had just happened. _Trapped? But all those years he’s already_ been _trapped… He deserves freedom._

But suddenly he didn’t feel like fighting for that. His knees buckled underneath him, and a terrible migraine pulsed through his head. He remembered Erin’s words about splitting with a shared consciousness. It would drain most of one’s energy, if not kill them.

_And William couldn’t change back, so Cassidy couldn’t kill me to kill him at the same time. The easier route would have been to split us apart, which just happened._

“You’ll be fine. I just don’t know why you would fall in love with _him_ of all people. He’s old and evil, and he has the personality of a dried prune. Looks like one, too.”

“I don’t judge him by his actions in the past — I judge him from his actions in the present,” Peter growled.

“What, are you going to sing _Hakuna Matata_ for us?” Cassidy sniffed. “Grow up. Once a murderer, always a murderer.”

The ball of Remnant glowed brightly in protest.

“Oh, can it, brat,” the golden bear hissed at it.

“No one can change the past. That’s why the present’s so important, since what we do affects the future,” Peter went on. Cassidy cocked an eyebrow at him in mock interest. “He’s been in my mind for a couple days, and even in that short time period, I can see that he’s changed. He’s not who he used to be.”

Cassidy grabbed William’s Remnant from the air and swatted the dark Remnant away. The cloud of black hissed, but faded away — but not before a familiar voice whispered in Peter’s mind: **_Keep talking. Erin has a plan._**

So Shadow Bonnie wasn’t dead after all. But how that was going to help, Peter had no fucking clue. But, he followed the spirit’s orders.

“Things change, Cassidy. You have to accept that.”

“Ha! You’d think _I’d_ be telling _you_ off about that. Respect your elders, little rascal.”

“Actually, you don’t age after you die,” Peter said slowly. “Which means you’re still younger than me.”

“Oh, really? How old was I when I died?”

“I dunno, eight?”

“Hmph. William didn’t tell you everything after all.”

Peter was going to ask what that meant, but was stopped when the light flickered out. In the blackness, a well-known row of glowing teeth was seen. Cassidy had apparently not noticed Shadow Bonnie, for she looked up at where the light had been and narrowed her eyes. Peter could almost picture the steam and gears churning in her brain in deep thought.

While she was distracted with trying to figure out why the light went out, Emily’s presence suddenly disappeared. Peter slowly turned to look at her, but instead found Shadow Bonnie. He put a finger to his mouth, then gestured to the door. Peter nodded, knowing that Emily wouldn’t be a problem anymore. But then his eyes widened in sudden realization when Cassidy looked away from the light and off into the distance, a faraway look glazed on her eyes.

_She knows. She can feel Emily’s fear._

**_I’ve blocked their thoughts,_** Shadow Bonnie explained. **_Believe me, Cassidy could care less about that woman._**

Apparently she could. Cassidy shrugged, looking at Peter again. “So, how would you like to die? I’m sure I can make it happen.”

Peter was drawn aback at that. “Um…”

**_Speak!_ **

“Peacefully and naturally?” he said finally, grinning nervously.

Before Cassidy could reply, she shouted in surprise when an unseen enemy knocked her off her feet. She landed with a heavy _thud_ , her hands flying out to catch herself. In the meantime, the Remnant she was holding practically threw itself away from her, bolting in Peter’s direction at lightning-fast speed. The young man didn’t even have the time to say, “Oh, shit,” before it collided with him. His mind was suddenly flooded with thoughts that weren’t his own.

**_Are you okay? Are you hurt? Oh my, God, you could have been killed. How the hell did you survive? Who was that? Is she dead? No, she’s not dead. She never dies. I’m an idiot. I swear, I’ll shove my foot up her a—_ **

_WILLIAM!_

**_Yes?_ **

Peter was nearly hyperventilating with excitement.

_You’re alive? I mean, sort of, but — Jesus, you scared the shit out of me! I can’t believe you’re back!_

**_Peter. If there’s one thing you should have learned about me by now that I’ve already mentioned a hundred times before, is that I always come back. God, you’d think that people wouldn’t be surprised by this._ **

_Did I mention that I love you?_

**_Only about a million times._ **

_Oh, good._

William materialized next to him, a scowl present on his face. He stood battle ready, a flame-like aura already gathering around his hands. Shadow Bonnie appeared as well across from the two, hovering above Cassidy.

“Here’s the plan,” Afton growled quietly. “I’ll take care of Cassidy, and you’ll stay in the corner until the danger is gone.”

“What? I’m not gonna let you go off and do this on your own!” Peter protested.

William sighed in exasperation. **_Fuck you and your empathy._**

As soon as Cassidy attempted to sit up again, Shadow Bonnie forced her down. But the spirit was too strong, sending the shadow flying back into the darkness. She got back to her feet, sounding a low, guttural growl. Then something absolutely horrifying happened.

_Is she getting bigger, of is that just me?_

**_Nope. Definitely getting bigger._ **

Nightmare Fredbear made an ear-shattering roar, causing Peter to cry out and cover his ears. William hardly flinched. He took one brave step towards Cassidy’s monstrous form and held out a hand, almost as if he was offering Cassidy to shake it. Then purple and green flames surrounded it, shooting out from his fingertips and growing into a massive swirling inferno that formed around Cassidy. It nearly enveloped her entirely, and it almost blinded Peter by how bright it was. The energy surrounding the combustion was enough to make a pulsing sound, and it sent waves of pixelation throughout the area. When they touched Peter, the world around him turned into a massively discolored variant for long moments. It reminded him of the atmosphere from Hard Mode in Help Wanted. Was that where William got his powers from? A sort of alternate, parallel realm to this world? An Upside Down to the real world?

That final thought made Peter wonder if the Upside Down was an actual thing (Demogorgons and the Mind Flayer could _really_ throw his life off course). He shook it away, focusing on William and Cassidy again.

The flames had somewhat subsided, and Cassidy seemed completely unfazed. William made a groan of distress, stepping back and putting up a pixelated force field in front of him as Cassidy went to rake her claws across the suit. The shield shattered like glass with immediate contact, and William was thrown backwards a couple yards. Cassidy took no hesitation to charge again, pinning her rival to the ground.

“You took away my life,” she growled monstrously. “You took away my family. You took away my happiness. You deserve to suffer!”

William made a struggled grunt under her, his form glitching out under stress.

“You probably didn’t even think about how my family would have responded to my death. The bodies were never found. We never had proper funerals. Why else would you think that we were never able to cross over? You took a peaceful death away from me, too! What twisted person would force a child to be springlocked and left to rot? Would that same person really become stable again afterwards?” Cassidy paused for a breath. “But you don’t care. After we were gone, you hardly even thought twice about us. Well, lucky for you, we didn’t forget _you._ ”

“But you’ve already tortured me. Your unfinished business is finished, Cass,” William argued. His voice was strained. “There is nothing left for you here. I’ve learned my lesson!”

“My business isn’t finished until I see your end!” Cassidy screamed. She went to slice open William’s neck until something knocked her hand away. She looked back at whoever her attacker was, hissing dangerously.

Peter couldn’t believe himself. All the while the other two were fighting, he had mustered enough anger and fear that he had found his own powers. He had used that to strike Cassidy, but it was hardly enough to send her toppling over.

The nightmarish creature grabbed William by the neck and got to her feet, turning to face Peter. “Do it again and your little obsession gets his head torn off,” she warned. William wheezed and gave Peter a pleading and fearful stare.

But he couldn’t stop. Peter’s emotions were taking over now. Shadow Bonnie even looked at him from across the room in concern as the aura brightened. Cassidy’s eyes widened in — what was that? Fear? Surprise? Either way, it brought a smile to Peter’s face.

**_Control it, Peter. Don’t let it consume you._ **

Too late for that. As soon as a certain idea entered Peter’s brain, William suddenly disappeared out of thin air, making Cassidy shake her head in confusion, mouth open in surprise.

But William was just tucked away in the back of Peter’s mind while the younger used the virus’s form as his own. It had always been a weird fantasy of his, to become an animatronic. Of course this had happened a couple times before, but never had Peter been able to take control for himself.

 ** _Peter, you don’t know what your doing,_** William tried. **_Stop before someone unintentionally gets hurt._**

 _The only hurting I’ll do around here is going to be_ in _tentional._

Peter forced a behemoth of a shockwave of energy out of himself, and when it struck Cassidy, her movements became massively glitched and, in a way, unrendered.

“How dare you?” she screeched, her voice corrupt. “This is impossible! You can’t defeat me!”

“I know,” Peter said. “But he can.”

He let William take control of himself once again, and the virus made an even bigger shockwave than before. Cassidy screamed in agony, what was left of a solid form disintegrating into tiny bits of both liquid and raw Remnant. One larger orb lorded over the rest, but Shadow Bonnie grabbed it before it could move anywhere. He squeezed it tightly, the golden light absorbing into the black shadow, turning into what seemed like fiery veins. Bonnie winked at William, then disappeared in a swarm of dark Remnant.

 _We did it,_ Peter mused.

**_That we did._ **

_Where’d she go? Is she dead?_

**_Gone. Reduced to atoms._ **

_Perfectly balanced, as all things should be._

And for the first time in hours, the two burst into genuine laughter.

**_Impossible._ **

_We used the Remnant to destroy the Remnant._

**_Please. My brain can only hold so much nonsense._ **

_You started it._

**_Touché._ **

More laughing, then an awkward silence.

**_I can’t believe that after all these years, she’s finally gone. At long last, I can finally rest in peace._ **

_Wait. You don’t mean—_

**_No, you idiot. I’m still sticking around. I mean that I’ll finally get a good night’s sleep._ **

_Ah. That makes a lot more sense. No, wait, let me rephrase that; That’s less scary._

**_Hmph. But I do wonder what will happen now._ **

_How about we get out of here?_

**_Good idea._ **

William looked around the room, searching for an exit. Of course, the only door was locked.

**_Any idea how?_ **

_Oh, for the love of—_

One year later…

Peter laid in his bed, a comfortable as can be. It was perfectly quiet, and he was relieved to know that morning was still two hours away. At least in his normal morning schedule it was. He was still asleep, snoring slightly and his face buried in his pillow. Little did he know of the figure looming in front of him.

“FIRE!”

Peter screamed, falling out of his bed. He tried to stand, but his legs had become entangled in his blankets. He whimpered, trying to find a way to get free. But he stopped when he heard laughter.

“You should have seen the look on your face,” William chuckled.

Peter looked up at the older, the evilest and most angry look he could muster etched on his face. He stared into William’s brilliant emerald eyes, cursing them for being so beautiful.

“For the last time, _don’t scare the sit out of me at six in the morning._ ”

“But it’s so fun!”

William held out a hand for Peter to help him up, but he swatted it away and kicked the blankets off, standing up on his own. He then cursed William’s height. Even standing straight, Peter was still hardly above William’s chin. As Glitchtrap, the man was even taller. Even as a human, he was still tall and handsome and _oh my God_ stop _brain._

In the past three months, William had finally figured out how to get rid of his form as Glitchtrap and become human again. As happy as Peter was, it was more distracting than before.

William was skinny because of how he had starved himself in his final years, which made his cheekbones jut out in a sort of handsome way. His skin had gone from a sickly pale to a healthy light pink, though it was obvious he had family in Britain because the complexion was still a bit whiter than normal. His hair was a silky black, and it needed a serious trim. But the most amazing thing about him overall was his eyes. It had become clear to Peter that Springbonnie was in fact William’s own creation for a reason.

The funny thing was that William’s new form didn’t come with clothes. Much to Peter’s embarrassment and horror, he had given William his own clothes until he could make an emergency trip to the nearest Wal-Mart. Of course, being as naturally flirtatious as he was, William had insisted that Peter just couldn’t handle the full beauty.

Then, ironically, William had encouraged Peter into losing his virginity that same night. Though Peter would rather not dwell on that.

But overall, things were better now. Peter felt like nothing could ever break he and William’s relationship, or ruin his life even more for that matter. After all, there was no way Cassidy could return, right? And it wasn’t like there was another contraption that William had hidden away in the woods that would wake up and hunt them down.

Right?

_Deep in the woods surrounding the outskirts of Hurricane, something awoke. Not one, but four creatures arose from the soil, their howls and roars piercing the silence of the night. Behind them was an old, run-down house, and only a mile away lied their first objective location._

_The leader stood for the first time in years, blinking its cold, blue eyes. Its mane whipped and fluttered in the wind, its darker grey fur pressed tightly against its skin due to the dampness of the dirt it had laid in. After so many years, they were free._

_Their master was calling to them._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooooh cliffhanger O-O

**Author's Note:**

> UwU suspense


End file.
